Q: What do you do?
THOMAS: I am a content creator for Guild ESports (mainly work on FIFA), with the aim of bringing the game to life and entertaining people, trying to put a smile on people’s faces and making the best content possible. I’m a content creator that likes to have fun and express myself really.
Q: What made you decide to venture into the e-gaming space?
THOMAS: The crazy thing is I’ve already wanted to do it (go into e-gaming) and I’ve been chasing this for a long time. I started making videos from about 2014. Back then the space hadn’t really taken off, it was kind of here and there, uploading and streaming when I could. It’s been a burning passion of mine. I’ve loved gaming from a very young age, there were times when I’ve postponed certain responsibilities (oops) to get the new GTA! FIFA was my first main game, but I love gaming in general so that’s probably what’s brought me here.
Q: We know you’re a content creator for Guild Sports, backed by David Beckham and a lot of other big players, would you say there is a lot of investment/support pumped into the e-sports space?
THOMAS: I feel like we are just now scratching the surface. There’s so much more to learn and explore in the space. I believe the younger generation are going to love it because the way I see it now is that the professional gamers are like footballers/athletes, whose value is only going to go from strength to strength. People are signing big deals, contracts and the investment is only just starting to kick in. People didn’t really believe that e-sports would go this far in the beginning, but now as a lot more stuff is happening you see a lot more backing, like David Beckham as you mentioned is backing us, Ruud Guilt also has an e-sports team so you can see that the investment is starting to go into the space and people are getting their money’s worth.
Q: How much would you say (percentage wise) did the Covid pandemic (with people being indoors) contribute to the growth of e-gaming or it was destined to breakthrough?
THOMAS: E-sports was always destined to get big, but I do think that Covid accelerated that growth. I’d say 65%-70% because when everyone was indoors there naturally wasn’t much to do. You can’t go outside, and if you can’t go outside, you can’t see your friends- limiting people’s main form of communication. What’s next step after that? Gaming, or Discord/Zoom. I believe that period propelled the e-sports world and that’s what led to me doing this full time. I was working a full job (9-5) whilst doing this on the side. When Covid hit, I couldn’t go to work or do anything, so I just decide to go full throttle with it. So that’s what I did, and obviously it got me into this position which I’m very grateful for. But I feel like Covid was like moment that really pushed it forward. Like I said earlier everyone was indoors with nothing to do, so you’re either working from home or you’re left think what can I watch/do? So I would just end up going on YouTube or Twitch just to keep myself occupied. Even when I was working at my 9-5 my manager would always ask “should I get a PlayStation”? Everyone wanted to get a gaming console and when you get them you want to play them, you want to know who’s the best at these games. There’s a massive community behind it and it grew larger during the pandemic.
Q: How do you think the sector can grow and what are you doing to facilitate this?
THOMAS: The industry can be as big as it wants to be. It’s only going to grow from strength to strength. Whilst I wouldn’t want to compare it directly to professional football, I believe it’s going to be a major sport where you have you have your superstars. Every game now has it’s known, world-class professional gamer. FIFA has Tekkz, Call of Duty has Scump etc…and on top of that there are huge deals being made every single day for these professional gamers so it’s only going to get larger. In addition, the generation is getting younger and younger, because as you know, the older you get the slower your reactions are, so 14-16 years are going to be making a lot of money compared to 25/26-year olds and that’s the trend it’s going to go towards. Arenas are going to start getting built, more people will start performing and the space will provide more jobs for the economy in return, because you don’t have to be a gamer to be in e-sports. You can be an agent, content creator (like myself), caster, commentator. There are so many different avenues for gaming and it opens a plethora of jobs. You could also work behind the scenes-so many staff at Guild are amazing! The space can go as big as it wants to go, there are so many opportunities and I would suggest if anyone’s out there that wants to get in the space, now is the best time to do it because everything is coming to life. I’m almost scared to think of the prospect of things in 10 years’ time!
Q: Where do you see the e-gaming industry being in the next five years?
THOMAS: Things are already happening with Sky Sports, the ePremier League was on Sky Sports which I had the privilege to present for, so it’s already airing on TV. I genuinely believe that in 5 years’ time it’s going to have its own TV channel, I feel like YouTube is going to become an even bigger platform for the space than it is now. In 5 years’ time it’s really going to hit main stream media, you might even see it on newspapers. I also predict that at this rate, we could have our first seven-figure e-sports player! I’ve seen people being bought for 5 so we aren’t far off. There’s too much money in sports so it’s bound to trickle down to this space. Nowadays if you ask a kid in the UK what they want to be in the future, it’s a footballer, and if they don’t want to be a footballer, they want to be a YouTuber. With that mindset stuck on most kids, the industry is only going to grow bigger and bigger and there will be competition for spaces naturally. More people want to create, more people want to contribute in the industry and as long as that’s the case the space is just going to blow up!
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