People on the Move - Oct. 21, 2022
Bad things happen at G4 and Microsoft this week.
It’s a bad week for G4 as owner Comcast Spectacor decides to call it quits and leaves a whole bunch of talented people without work. It was a tough thing to try and do—resurrecting a linear TV gaming network online with so much stiff competition out there from YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. More on this below. - James Fudge.
Bits and Bobbles
Adam Rymer returned from giving a talk on OpTic and Envy merging at Esports Rising (Sports Business Journal’s annual esports business conference—this year held in New York City) and found his circumstances had changed. On Wednesday he revealed that he was no longer the CEO of OpTic and would serve in an advisory role to the company’s board of directors. OpTic Gaming President and founder Hector Rodriguez will now serve in the role... More on this story in our sister publication, The Fudge Retort.
Microsoft confirmed Monday that it had cut jobs across multiple divisions of the company, though it would not disclose just how many employees had been affected. Some have put the number in the "hundreds." While Microsoft would not name specific departments that had been affected either, several employees from game studios and the Xbox division noted publicly that they were out of work.
Comcast’s Spectacor-owned gaming network G4 officially shut down this week and all employees were let go. Comcast tried to resurrect the 2000's era gaming and geek culture network last year but struggled to find traction in a world filled with gaming content from some of the biggest influencers in the world on YouTube and Twitch. Comcast Spectacor CEO Dave Scott explained in a memo to all employees this week that the company’s investment in the network and its efforts to find new life couldn't find traction. Comcast is assisting affected employees with job placement and other resources...
Riot Games has acquired Warsaw-based studio Wargaming for an undisclosed amount of money and shifted all of the company's employees to the new Riot Games Warsaw studio. Wargaming is best known as the creator of the popular online vehicle based military games including World of Tanks.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Chris Smith exits his role as general manager of 100 Thieves League of Legends.
Lyndsay Bamberger joins ESL Faceit's DreamHack group as product manager - partnerships.
Daniel O'Hare is named chief gaming officer at Vexed Gaming.
Sean Gares steps down as a coach for 100 Thieves.
Matthew Boyd joins Riot Games as principal strategist, global League of Legends esports.
Jyles Lulham joins Twitch as creative producer.
After more than four years, Jack Davis left UK-based tournament organizer Gfinity.
Former Vexed Gaming exec Mark Weller joins the esports division of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team as esports team manager.
Christopher Bohlmann starts a new role as senior director growth & finance Bayes Esports.
Yoon “Malix” Kyung-Ho joins India-based Revenant Esports as the new Valorant head coach.
Oscar Dobbins exits Vulpine Esports to write for Game Rant.
Silaj Mondal leaves his role as social media associate at Garena India.
Gaming:
Leo Olebe moves from Google to YouTube as the new global head of gaming.
Kristin Banse is promoted to gaming operations manager at TikTok.
Ryan J. Lacina joins Sega of America as VP of brand marketing.
Brian Mum starts a new position as lead technical artist at Turtle Rock Studios.
Daniel Lehrich leaves Netflix Games to join Yuga Labs as senior director of production, gaming.
Sue Ann Goh starts a new position as strategic partner development manager, Google Play Games at Google.
Joe Nickolls takes on a new role as VP of Sumo Digital North America in addition to his current job as managing director and co-founder at Timbre Games.
Other:
Hannah Seiler leaves her role as national sales manager at IGN Entertainment after more than four years.
Former WWE and Triller attorney Darren Traub joins Crunchyroll to handle business and legal affairs.
Bhernardo Viana rejoins GAMURS Group as a senior editorial strategist.
Kareem White is promoted to the role of director of talent production at ESPN.
Kyle Hilliard has left GameSpot to join Game Informer as magazine content editor.
Shubham Singh has been promoted to senior business journalist at India-based publication Business Today.
Former Triller and ByteDance India marketing exec Sonika Mehra joins Twitter as partner manager, global content partnership.
Manmeet Singh Chaddha exits CriticalX Esports Private Limited to join FanClash as creative brand lead.
Madison Wright leaves McDonald's to join PepsiCo's Gatorade brand as marketing manager, social & culture.
Sheley Riester is promoted to director of community impact at Anheuser-Busch.
Soft2Bet appoints Gilad Naim as new CCO.
In Other News
🤔 UK's Competition and Markets Authority has published its issues statement on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
💪 Second group of Activision Blizzard workers to vote on union.
🎱 Texas security regulators are investigating FTX in the state.
💸 Financial troubles could be waiting in the wings for Esports Entertainment Group…
🚫Popular streamer gets banned from Call of Duty competitions.
🐔 Elon Musk may make a lot of job cuts when he is in charge of Twitter.