Im looking forward to the soft-focus human interest package before your Like they do at the Olympics. The market for playing Fortnite is huge. But its not supported by the magnitude of the revenue with league revenue share like youd find in traditional sports today. Big thanks to the fabulous and patient @frenzystudio_ for their help with conceptualizing my brand, and @alexaftw for bringing my voice to life! I have a deep passion for all things women, tech, environment | 10 comments on LinkedIn Im almost ashamed of a lot of the things weve had to do that were firsts in the industry. So whatever we can do to get the best athletes in our house works for me as a business. 2023 Forbes Media LLC. And so what pains me about the situation is some of the behavior had been prior to my time, and I hadnt been aware of it. The average esports athlete at Evil Geniuses makes about $70,000 per year. And so the infrastructure of Hollywood has sort of raced toward the creator economy. Well, so this is something I think about a lot, especially in the creator ecosystem, which we pay a lot of attention to; its new, but the cultural product its making is maybe not new, right? And by agencies that are the real ones, you know, UTA, CAA, large conglomerates. We havent targeted any women in hiring. But in terms of the volume of the pie that I want to cut a slice out of, geo-affiliation is always something we look at, but its not going to be my priority because I have many more fans across the globe than I could just tap into only in Seattle. But as we call it internally, theres a little bit of a matrix decision, of all the constituents we have to think of, because theres quite a lot of frequently opposing voices. Youre also an advisor forthe*gameHERS. So outsourcing to people whose focus that is, is excellent. Right. And Im trying to protect the masses of my people at EG. Its us that decides where we support. For this week's episode of Decoder, I spoke with Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO of esports company Evil Geniuses, to figure out how an esports team makes money, where the industry is headed,. So our players are celebrities in their own rights and realms and that helps the team. And part of me was not surprised by the reception, but part of me was also very lifted by the amount of people that came out of the woodwork per se, and were like, Weve been here, its amazing to see a voice or someone that looks or can speak for us like us. And that story became more and more frequent. And whats the full network of what is the message were trying to say? That sounds like a lot to deal with. I ask every CEO who comes on the show, for their decision-making framework, and Ive kind of waited a bit to ask you because I wanted to give people a sense of how novel the decisions you make are. [8] In September 2019, the organization made their return to League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, securing a franchise slot in the League of Legends Championship Series, along with acquiring NRG Esports' CS:GO roster. One of our other teams competes for upwards of a $40 million prize pool for a singular event called the International every year in Dota. So how do we show through action? This is very much an investment story. That was definitely one of the scarier elements for me, like, How do I navigate this space? Historically, gaming has been very cliquey. Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO, Evil Geniuses discuss what's next as the Esports industry evolves with Bloomberg's Jennifer Zabasajja at the Bloomberg Power Pl. "Part of the esports problem. 2022 Summit. So what had not just resulted from that in the removal was, we do social media audits and deeper background checks with all of our hires, not just staff, but also players. Please only use it for a guidance and Nicole LaPointe Jameson's actual income may vary a lot from the dollar amount shown above. Esports does not seem like theres a New York City team or a Kansas City team or whatever, right? But if I create an unsafe work environment for myself or others, it defeats the whole purpose of trying to grow and expand and bring a positive outlook to the gaming industry. Its the universe of things around it that hopefully add up to enough money to keep the core product alive. Does this aid? There werent a lot of people spending on marketing and advertising in a COVID world. Here, and almost everywhere in digital, it seems like the core thing rarely makes the money itself. So we really focused on bringing peripheral revenue streams into the business to support what we do but that also dont deprecate from the core product of who we are. Weve made decisions that we knew, well, this might not resonate with the fans, but we know we have to do this. So we think of the fans and the community quite a bit. Phenomenal episode of Technology Untangled! Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Nicole LaPointe Jameson, the 26-year-old chief executive of Evil Geniuses, doesn't come from esports. And so we take any claims of someone breaking our employment conduct or our harassment policies, very, very seriously. Before that, you worked at PEAK6, which is an investment company. Prominent historians and conservation experts explain the architectural relevance of buildings ranging from houses of worship to former colonial outposts and tenements. And Im actually very blessed that I have investors that very much are aligned with the longer-term vision, even when short-term cash is problematic. Nicole E Lapointe, age 48 View Full Report Address:***** Lynores Way, Plano, TX. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Or is it the ancillary universe of content creation, making celebrities, maybe youre going to sell a Netflix show is that the money? And we believe that people can make mistakes and recover from them, but there are certain mistakes or repeated actions that I cannot in good faith turn a blind eye from, because it also creates an internal unsafe environment. Everyone and their mother knows about Fortnite. Its in alignment to our league partners, like what are they trying to achieve and where are goals that we can co-help together, as well as what sticks to my shareholders values, my investors values, and our corporate strategy. Video games are video games. But its also great because we have a really good litmus test of what our players care about. Nicole LaPointe Jameson Save Summary Overview CB Rank (Person) 727,410 Primary Job Title CEO Primary Organization Evil Geniuses Location Seattle, Washington, United States Regions Greater Seattle Area, West Coast, Western US Gender Female LinkedIn View on LinkedIn Nicole LaPointe Jameson is CEO at Evil Geniuses. Whats the word Im looking for? Youre doing a lot of business in China, your players are on the sides of buses, Im told. And at the time that EG [Evil Geniuses] and gaming came on our plate, I was looking from an investment point of view at technology, AR, VR, and gaming companies, looked at a lot of esports teams. == Early life Among the platforms ready to capitalize is Evil Geniuses, which has grown its own revenue sixfold in the two-and-a-half years since Jameson took the helm as CEO. Thank you for having me. Its inherently this de-location. My differences made me nervous, but since I had spent so many months in the due diligence process with the internal EG team, I felt like I had already been working with them. And by being nimble in those areas, were able to show positive traction across fandom development, revenue development, even competitive results. and break down barriers that might have existed, into the fold. You are a woman and a person of color in gaming. I think a very interesting today case study is Fortnite, right? When Nicole LaPointe Jameson became the CEO of the esports organization Evil Geniuses in 2019, she took the helm of a brand that had a well-established presence in the gaming world. Those are the types of decisions we make beyond what is the money. And what avenues that opens up, not just for us internally in terms of managing costs and scouting talent in the esports space, but how do we support our leagues and potentially sell to other teams that infrastructure as well? But then also, were a sports team and so our humans, our players, our athletes are also the crux of our decision. Our first #valorant international LAN started with a ! Im so excited to have a platform to give a megaphone to people whose voices felt like they werent heard before, even though they are legitimate parties and creators and innovators in the space, but also, professionally, gaming is ubiquitous, and it should be ubiquitous. I get this question a lot, especially from traditional sports people. So theres an inherent dynamic between the people who make the games and a company like yours, where youre trying to make something thats great and fun to watch as an entertainment product and theyre trying to make something its easier to participate in. What an amazing time watching the @evilgeniuses guys on stage Plus one of the best meals of my life with @showliana 2,546 followers. Many shows depict an awkward tension when a suit from the firm suddenly takes over a growing company. April 4-6, 2022. I worked in private equity. So weve been able to pull in things using our core athletics platforms to really help self-sustain the business in the past two years to keep the esports product alive but keep the lights on at the same time. "We are lucky to have an authentic position in the women's esports space," Evil Geniuses CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson said in an interview with The Washington Post. And thats our biggest revenue stream. So we were able to activate and support brands, bringing their awareness to different spaces through what we offer in activations. And that has been an excellent plug-and-play for us, that we didnt realize that would be as lucrative as an entire business line as it has been, and so were going deeper into that area. LaPointe Jameson joined Evil Geniuses as CEO back in 2019. Im always thinking of downside risk and managing upside potential. They usually say, Okay, take a coach whos been in the space for a long time. So heres the next big difference with a traditional sports team. Last year, you removed two players from the roster for their conduct. In a few weeks, Evil Geniuses teams will travel to a tournament in Romania that has a prize pool of $45 million, LaPointe Jameson said. And so that manifests into us signing pure content creators, that manifests in us carving out, okay, you get two production days a month, and then oh, if you missed that window, partner, you cant use this player right now. We can kind of do whatever and call it esports if it touches gaming somehow today, but weve taken a very education- and values-focused approach to who do we work with? Our newest product and we actually roll out with our last public component [at] the end of this quarter is our tech and data analytics, because we use tools to make decisions internally. And shes super into Vogue and fashion. Maybe more people will play basketball but still, the market for being a professional basketball player is still pretty small. But also its a true legal and financial stickiness in support to make the product viable, right? But as I kept going through life, careers in gaming were not a thing. Now that youre in this space, is it a goal of yours to bring in other women and POC? At Evil Geniuses, professional esports players compete in video games, such as League of Legends, Dota and Counter Strike, LaPointe Jameson said. Why do you become a fan of a brand, kind of like clothing, or a music artist, which can have broader reach? LaPointe Jameson has also opened offices in Seattle and Los Angeles and doubled headcount. Theres more lawyers and agents and potentially more revenue? No, call them out. [7] This made her the first African American woman to lead a major esports organization. Early life and career [ edit] A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, [2] LaPointe Jameson attended Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 2016. Theres an audience lots of people tune in to watch teams play games like League of Legends or Dota 2 but the business models and ecosystem around the industry havent had a ton of success. So weve taken bite-sized steps and directions we knew we could own before doing kind of the table stakes of what everyone else is doing. See Nicole Lapointe Jameson's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. They control the games, they can change the rules, they can change how the games work. The original Pokmon TCG base set is coming back as a trio of premium decks, MLS opening weekend on Apple TV points to an expensive future for sports streaming, Ted Lasso is extra feel-good in its official season 3 trailer. Again, there are other teams that have just leaned fully into Twitch, have leaned fully into YouTube. Or maybe you do, in the lab, I dont know. And whos paying you guys? Nicole LaPointe Jameson. I want to end with where youre increasing revenue. And so we took a very empirical building approach, which maybe doesnt sound insightful for sports listeners, but is very different from esports, where most of the talent pool is known, especially in North America. To clarify for the people in the back that didn't catch it the first time Youre running a startup. We can navigate much more by the individual because its not an overwhelmingly large vehicle for us to really manipulate and support. And I was very nervous of what the reception would be like. Aug 6, 2022 171 Dislike Share Save BuzzFeed Multiplayer 9.78M subscribers Nicole LaPointe Jameson, the CEO of esports organization Evil Geniuses , sat down with BuzzFeed to talk about the. Second of all, these are the peripheral business arms we then use to support. But you have a competitive Valorant team, you have a competitive League of Legends team, it cost you a lot of money to get that slot in League of Legends, right? So I was very excited for a board seat. And were an North American team, even though we have global competitions, but the more eastward you go, the more Wild West it becomes in that infrastructure. And more importantly, should tuition go toward supporting bars around the XL Center? . @DrJordantsai @EvilGeniuses *and Nicole's dumb IT bands . But if they suck at the game, thats not interesting to me at all. And then, in particular with sports, sports are traditionally very local. In May of that year, Nicole LaPointe Jameson '16 became the first African-American woman to lead a major esports organization, taking over as CEO of Evil Geniuses. Happy Wednesday! Esports is interesting in that it brings great visibility, gives good player conversion, boosts product reputation, but for some of these, like for example Riot or Valve, esports, even though its multi-hundreds-of-millions dollars for them, is still tiny compared to the game sales. Its a very different human rights regime. They, of course, get a cut of that, but the onus is on us to manage and support, and sell against, and brand build for them, essentially. DPW looks to fix 'dangerous' intersection, Greenwich residents on SoundWaters board, and other news, Contributed / Colin Young-Wolff / Contributed Photo, 2023 Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC, Budget committee considers cuts to police spending, road paving, Greenwich prepares for snow storm, expecting 3-7 inches, In photos: Dragon Dance celebrates restaurant grand opening, Greenwich commission OKs historic ID of Samuel Ferris house, See inside Mikes Organic market after makeover in Cos Cob, In Photos: Greenwich Hospital teaches hands-only CPR, Poll workers honored at Central Middle and other local news, Stamford artist's portraits showcased at Greenwich Hospital, Two Greenwich residents among new SoundWaters board members, and other celebrations, In Photos: Dragon Dance celebrates anniversary of Greenwich's Sushi Soba and Poke Boba grand opening, Greenwich landmark gets striking makeover as Stamford-based Mike's Organic creates Cos Cob market, Connecticut digs out after first big snowfall of season, Winter snowstorm CT: School closures, parking bans and municipal closings. Nicole LaPointe Jameson. You are a very good CEO. Because gaming is where I found a social escape, which is what led me to where I am today., tatiana.flowers@thehour.com @TATIANADFLOWERS. How do you manage that? Esports Insidersat down with Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CEO of Evil Geniuses, to discuss the need to change the logo, as well as learnings that have been implemented into this "final phase" of the organisation's rebrand. EG, one of the oldest and most recognizable brands in professional gaming, was founded in 1999. Managed costs. Now she is a CEO in the esports industry", "This 26-year-old CEO is helping esports grow up", "Evil Geniuses acquired by PEAK6 Investments", "Evil Geniuses' new mastermind must reckon with the past to chart a future course", "100 People Transforming Business - Nicole LaPointe Jameson", "Evil Geniuses acquires Echo Fox LCS Franchise Slot; NRG Esports CS:GO Roster", "Evil Geniuses CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson on embracing "Evil" and pivoting through pandemic", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicole_LaPointe_Jameson&oldid=1097751696, American people in the video game industry, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 July 2022, at 13:49. Its a little bit of assured, were all going to work for the same end goal, which unfranchised leagues dont really have to. And that translates, especially in a world where a lot of what we do is unknown. Now 27, LaPointe Jameson is the CEO of Evil Geniuses, a major esports organization, where shes shattering stereotypes and creating an inclusive environment. I wont shy away: The fact that me coming in as CEO was so big due to just my identity is disappointing its 2021, to be honest but not surprising, especially if you look at the North American esports player, right? She has also stabilized a company. So I had focused in particular with distressed-asset businesses that were ripe for technology disruption for turnaround. And so it is something we definitely have to evaluate a lot around what teams do we enter. 1 episode totalling 1 hour, 9 minutes. And so most of my decisions, as cliche as it probably could sound, are very, very data-driven. The two will pull back the curtain on how esports organizations are run at the professional level and how fans and brands can get involved in the truly global phenomenon. Whats something you chose not to participate in? How did you get into the industry? The predominantly male esports industry has a reputation of toxic, harassing and bullying behavior toward women players. Its an exciting year for us as live events, were hoping, will come back by the end of this year, and well have some very nice big activations, coupling our tournaments. They havent nailed the sports side, though. One of the best parts of how gaming operates is: Were digital, were behind the internet, we have some anonymity, and were relatively global, said LaPointe Jameson, who now lives in Seattle. Question a lot of people spending on marketing and advertising in a world where lot... Harassing and bullying behavior toward women players I navigate this space at EG relevance of buildings ranging houses... The market for being a professional basketball player is still pretty small someone breaking our conduct... Really good litmus test of what is the money itself also opened offices in Seattle and Angeles! 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