The Academy of Esports

Welcome to Episode Three of Y6 of The Academy of Esports podcast!

I’m your host, James O’Hagan. Thank you for joining me as I welcome a friend, a mentor, and a global legend in esports and education— Mark “Garvey” Candella, former founder & director of Twitch Student and current Chief Business & Strategy Officer of AcadArena.

Garvey joined me from his home base in the Philippines to share a journey that has taken him from a challenging start on the streets of Brooklyn to becoming one of the most well-known and respected figures in esports education and community-building. 

Just one example of a chapter along the way: his work ethic as a young UPS driver led him to a spot at power lunches over the famous red sauce of Forlinis in Manhattan– delivering financial prowess through osmosis as a side order– and established him as a founding innovator of day trading. 

Without question, this is and will remain one of my favorite podcast conversations of all-time. No summary could do justice to the wisdom shared, how much I learned about someone I thought I already knew, and how grateful I am to Garvey for his openness. 

Sit back, relax, and listen to a story that will captivate you, educate you, and inspire you. 

Connect with Garvey:

Welcome to Episode Two of YEAR SIX of The Academy of Esports podcast!

I’m your host, James O’Hagan. Thank you for joining me as I welcome a good friend from across the sea, Stuart Dempsey, the Founder and CEO of GamerFest Dublin, Ireland’s largest esports event.

In the aftermath of Brexit, Ireland was elevated to the role of premier English-speaking nation in the European Union. The impact of this on esports opportunities is massive. To speak to this– and offer two decades of marketing and branding experience to our audience– is a longtime friend of The Academy of Esports, Stuart Dempsey.

Since establishing GamerFest in 2017, Stuart’s event has gone from strength to strength with 5,000 visitors expected for GamerFest Summer at the end of May and up to 10,000 visitors in the next 18 months. That isn’t surprising when you consider what he brought to the table– a 20-year career in B2B and B2C marketing, a Master’s Degree in Marketing Practices from Galway University, and a dance card of successful relationships with some of Ireland’s biggest companies (recently expanded to include the Irish postal system!).

Join us for this fascinating conversation. We’re confident that you’ll walk away with a fresh take on Irish esports, a load of great advice about esports partnerships, and a strong desire to buy a ticket to GamerFest Dublin!

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Connect with Stuart Dempsey 

Welcome to PART TWO of Episode One of YEAR SIX of The Academy of Esports podcast!

I’m your host, James O'Hagan. Thank you for joining me as I welcome back my friend, Amir Satvat, the global head of startup operations at Amazon Web Services.

Before stepping into their current role, Amir experience included chapters as a principal publishing producer and key positions in business development and strategy at Amazon Games. They also served as COO for AWS' Inside Sales and Demand Generation Businesses, while spending over a decade in tech and healthcare sectors, working on strategy, operations, and business development. Amir's academic achievements include an MBA and a Master's in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MPA in Public Policy from New York University. Their professional journey is a perfect example of one of Amir’s career advice tenets: think laterally within a company to gain skills you need for your dream job.

As a dedicated gamer, Amir has played over 2,200 titles, cherishing series like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Monkey Island, and The Witcher. Their love for gaming began with Asteroids on the Atari 2600. Their passion for the industry doesn’t end there– Amir runs a thriving LinkedIn community of over 33,000 video game followers (and growing daily!), with many working in games.

Amir also loves opera, having created his first at age 14. With that in mind, we invited a surprise guest– Josh Shaw, Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Pacific Opera Project– whose blend of video game characters and operas is selling out stages wherever it goes.

Named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Innovators in Classical Music, Josh Shaw is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Pacific Opera Project (POP), which has been described as "L.A.'s most exciting new opera company." Over the past twelve seasons, Mr. Shaw has directed over 50 productions at POP, including The Rake’s Progress, Ariadne auf Naxos, La Calisto, Tosca: A Moving Production; and La Boheme: AKA “The Hipsters”. A frequent librettist for English updates, his Star Trek-inspired Abduction from the Seraglio and Nintendo-inspired Magic Flute (AKA #SuperFlute) have gained national attention and have been produced at multiple companies, shattering attendance records.

Enjoy, consider hitting “Subscribe,” and please make time to play in some way this week!

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Subscribe/Connect to Amir:

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the sixth year of The Academy of Esports podcast!

I’m your host, James O’Hagan, the Vice-President of Education and Innovation at LeagueSpot, and an educator for over two decades. Thank you for joining us for Part One of what is surely going to be one of my favorite conversations in this podcast’s history, as the subject is a dear friend and source of constant joy to all who know them. 

Amir Satvat is the global head of startup operations at Amazon Web Services. Prior to this, they served as principal publishing producer and, prior to that, both business development and strategy lead at Amazon Games. Going back even further, they served as COO for AWS’ Inside Sales and Demand Generation Businesses and spent over a decade in the tech and healthcare sectors in a variety of roles across strategy, operations, and business development. Amir earned their MBA and Master’s in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his MPA in Public Policy from New York University.

While amassing such an impressive list of accomplishments, Amir always had one goal in mind since childhood: work in gaming. We challenge you to find a more dedicated lifelong gamer! Amir has played over 2,200 titles in their life and their favorite video games series include Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Monkey Island, and The Witcher. (The first game they ever played was Asteroids on the Atari 2600!)

It took 15 years in the professional world to achieve their dream role at age 37. Today, the advice they learned– as well as the respect they have earned– make Amir one of the most influential voices in the space. Today, in addition to their “day job,” Amir operates one of the most important video games LinkedIn communities on earth with nearly 32,000 followers, more than half of whom work in the games industry.

It is a responsibility they take seriously. When the slew of job cuts hit gaming, Amir bundled a lifetime of professional experiences and connections into one extraordinary project: 

The Games Jobs Workbook. It is a resource that has now been viewed over 500,000 times since March, connected dozens upon dozens of job seekers with new careers, and launched a virtual mentorship program that is unprecedented in this space.

The Academy of Esports podcast welcomes Melissa Burns, a leader in scholastic esports in Canada, in honor of International Women's Day. Melissa is the founder and chair of Esport Canada, one of the largest Canadian esports organizations committed to excellence in gaming and supporting the growth of the Canadian esports ecosystem by connecting and amplifying diverse gaming communities. The organization values holistic development and authentic diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of their work, which has allowed them to build a federation focused on social impact.

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Leah Koons is a 10+ year gaming event and marketing veteran who has navigated and developed business relationships for endemic and non-endemic brands to the gaming industry. In our conversation, Leah invites the listener to learn how to be a successful and lasting presence in the game industry. For Leah, a bachelor's degree in psychology was the start. But it was an early decision to focus on the business of games that has led her path of success that includes working with the likes of Team Liquid, Alienware, and Riot. And now, Leah has just launched her own marketing, consulting and event business called EQME.

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Dylan Liu is not one to not have an opinion on the state of collegiate esports. That is one of the things that makes him such a compelling guest for a conversation! Since 2011, Dylan has been involved in collegiate esports while founding the team at his alma mater, Texas A&M, and now serving as the CEO of his company, Uconnect. Uconnect provides a platform to help collegiate programs and clubs to connect with potential sponsorship opportunities. This wide-ranging conversation pulls no punches and looks critically at the current state of collegiate esports, and the overall business of esports. Even at an hour, there was still quite a bit to talk about. 

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James Fudge has nearly 25 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering the video games industry, having worked for such companies as Avault, IDG Games' Games.Net, Computer Games Magazine, GameSpy, IGN, GamePro, GameShark, GamePolitics, GameCulture, Crispy Gamer, and more.

Over the last three years he worked behind the scenes at The Esports Observer, where he served as senior editor for two years helping to shape the quality of the writing, steer editorial policies, and generally train writers on best practices for content creation and journalism.

In this episode, James and James (James Squared) discuss the importance of journalism in gaming, and especially in the business thereof. 

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As Head of Education at British Esports, Kalam focusses on delivering growth and development of esports in education across the UK and beyond. 

The recipient of the prestigious Pearson National Teaching Award for his outstanding commitment to digital innovation, Kalam, an experienced teacher, educator and educational leader previously served as Esports Programme Lead at Barnsley College, where he co-wrote the Esports BTEC (Business and Technical Education Council) in association with Pearson and British Esports. In this episode, we dive into the BTECs and their impact in on students in the UK. 

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Will English IV (the fourth!) grew up wanting to be in broadcasting. He had various jobs growing up but imagined myself as a newscaster or a weatherman, but the path to a stable career was very long. A competitive gamer at Homewood-Flossmoor High School and Northern Illinois University, Will saw esports as an opportunity to meld those worlds together. In this episode, we dive into Will's passion for the Fighting Game Community (FGC), his quest to build an amazing experience in virtual and physical spaces, what gaming has meant for his own mental health, and his love for his brother and connection they made through Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Dr. Seth E. Jenny returns to The Academy of Esports!

Dr. Jenny is an assistant professor within the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (SRU).  As an esports academic, Dr. Jenny is a performance advisor to KovaaK 2.0: The Meta FPS aim trainer, founding member of the Esports Research Network, Deputy Editor of the International Journal of Esports, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports.  He teaches esports courses in SRU’s undergraduate esports minor and serves as the faculty advisor to SRU’s esports team.

Dr. Jenny has conducted research studies relating to video gaming and esports since 2011.  He has provided 100+ professional presentations and has published 50+ peer-reviewed academic journal articles within his prime areas of research - esports, motion-based video gaming, instructional technology, and distance running.

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Dr. Rachel Kowert is a Research Psychologist, the Research Director for Take This, a non-profit organization that provides mental health information and resources to the gaming community and industry, and is a Henry Cavill aficionado. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Wired, and video game publications such as Kotaku and Polygon. And now, Dr. Kowert will be leading research into online extremism through a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to research, produce recommendations and supports for digital community managers to combat online extremism in all forms. In this episode, we look at this effort and the current state of online extremism in gaming spaces.

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Andrew Czysz is a shoutcaster for the Horlick High School Esports Team and for the Wisconsin High School Esports Association. At a young age, Andrew has already attracted attention for his calls of the game "Rocket League," been interviewed by one of the largest newspapers in the United States, and even interviewed NFL royalty. Andrew is an example of the potential of possibilities beyond the games in scholastic esports. 

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Hillary Phan is a trailblazer in the space of Collegiate Scholastic Esports. She was a part of an amazing core of people who helped to build the University of California-Irvine Esports Program. She has also been a long-time advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. Her work with UCI, and now, AnyKey, and VOICE are critical in building a vibrant gaming community beyond varsity level competition. She will also be a panelist at the Purdue University: Games Make a Difference Symposium 2022!

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At the start of the COVID Pandemic, Kevin Fair of I Play Games took the bold step to join up with the Chicago Park District to offer an NBA2K tournament to local children. What happened after that is nothing short of amazing! Learn about the great things that came about from the passion and love Kevin has for Chicago and the forward thinking of the CPD and their relationship with video games.

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The work of Stephen Reid is a major influence on The Academy of Esports Podcast.

Stephen is a passionate advocate of both play as a powerful learning mechanism, and technology as a tool for learning. Spanning an education career of 20 years, he has used over 140 off-the-shelf games to teach in over 70 countries worldwide.

Minecraft sits at the heart of his teaching toolkit for curriculum, and social and emotional learning, as well as unique learning projects such as the creation of an entire school with Minecraft and a single 3D Printer, summer camps on farms, in museums, and on archaeological digs, and a series of Teaching The Tough Stuff lessons that teach gender equality, the refugee crisis, civil rights, conservation, and more.

He fosters the strong belief that all learning should be relevant and meaningful to the individual, with intentional real-life connections wherever possible.

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In this conversation, Dr. Samantha Blackmon, Associate English Professor at Purdue University, discusses not just her work at the university but also as a researcher interested in DEI issues in gaming. Dr. Blackmon champions working specifically on ways to bring people together from the games community, the games industry, content creators, and esports in order to bring about positive change in the games space.

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In this episode's conversation, Dr. Roberto Gallardo, the Director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development comes onto the podcast to talk about the current state of Internet connectivity in rural and urban areas. The issue is very much front of mind for many, especially in how it impacted education access during the height of the COVID pandemic. Now, as more dollars are flowing into the connecting homes to the Internet, Dr. Gallardo helps to answer some of the big questions around how Indiana is encouraging Internet access in areas that have been overlooked in the past.

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Dr. Rachel Kowert is a Research Psychologist, the Research Director for Take This, a non-profit organization that provides mental health information and resources to the gaming community and industry, and is a Henry Cavill aficionado. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Wired, and video game publications such as Kotaku and Polygon. And now, Dr. Kowert will be a panelist at the inaugural Purdue University: Games Make a Difference Symposium on April 8-9, 2022. In this episode, Dr. Kowert catches us up on the changing state of the world, changes in thoughts about screentime, and insights that will be further explored at the symposium.

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Dr. Kelli Dunlap is a clinical psychologist (PsyD in clinical psychology, licensed, and practicing), a game designer, an adjunct professor of game design (MA in game design), and the Head of Community at Take This.

Dr. Dunlap comes onto The Academy of Esports to discuss the main challenges she sees facing the gaming space and ways to tackle them. She is an advocate for the importance of play and games to mental health in all ages, not just kids.

Dr. William Watson, Associate Professor of Learning Design and Technology, and Director of Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments focuses his work around the idea that the system of education is antiquated and designed to meet entirely different societal needs than currently exist. Like any tweaks, educational video games are not themselves enough to solve the problems facing education today. Rather, Dr. Watson believes we need a new system of education that is focused on actual learning rather than driven by time and the comparison and sorting of learners, a personalized approach to learning.

As the Associate Director of Business Development at Purdue University, Chris Bishop is tasked with bringing events and initiatives to Purdue that would benefit past, current, and future Boilermakers. Three years ago, Chris and I started a conversation that morphed from "how to get esports onto Purdue's campus," into "we have all these amazing people doing work to support the gaming space on campus right now, and we need to showcase this!" On April 8-9, on the Purdue Campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, the culmination of these conversations will showcase the ecoverse around gaming and esports at the inaugural "Games Make a Difference" Symposium.

This podcast episode is a first dedicated to the speakers at the conference to provide further depth and insights that can sometimes be lost in symposium conversations.

Alex McNeil is a private admissions consultant and one of the moderators of Reddit's r/ApplyingToCollege community, the largest student community in the world dedicated to college admissions. He has been working in college preparation and admissions in various capacities for almost five years — first starting a test prep company in the San Francisco Area in 2017 that was sold in 2019, then working with colleges to build and evaluate their esports programs, and then back into college admissions in late 2020 as the Founder of McNeil Admissions.

In this conversation, Alex and I discuss the challenges and changes in colleges, and what to look for when considering an esports scholarship to an institution of higher learning.

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Marcus Howard returns to the podcast to discuss his new project "Innovate: Gaming & Esports." This project is a culmination of his work to  bring a heightened level of awareness to the depth of the esports industry beyond the games, and to give light to those doing the work not always seen on big stages. As an almanac, this project also hopes to open the eyes to everyone, students in particular, that the esports industry is growing in new ways not thought of in the recent past. 

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