There weren’t too many major moves in the esports and gaming industry this week, but there were a few layoffs that hit media company GAMURS Group and Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch. High school esports company PlayVS also cut about 25% of its staff.
I don’t know when we will have a week where people aren’t being laid off in 2023, but i’m really, really looking forward to it… - James Fudge.
The Big Story: Layoffs, Layoffs, Layoffs
Los Angeles-based scholastic esports company PlayVS laid off an undetermined number of staff earlier this month. Sources told The Esports Advocate that the number of people affected were around 20 employees, or 25% of the company's entire workforce. One source said that the tournament operations division took the biggest hit, but in a statement PlayVS said that it only let two people go in that division. We'll leave it to the reader to figure out where the truth lies on that one...
Twitch cut 400 jobs—part of a broader layoff at parent company Amazon, who announced that it would cut around 9,000 employees from its global workforce. Amazon’s last round of cuts took place in November, when it laid off approximately 19% of its workforce.
Finally, media company GAMURS Group cut an undetermined number of employees across a number of its top publications including Dot Esports, Upcomer, The Escapist, Destructoid, Pro Game Guides, The Mary Sue, Prima Games, Twinfinite, Gampur, Attack of the Fan Boy, Gamer Journalist, Touch Tap Play, PC Invasion, Operation Sports, Siliconera, and Game Skinny. One post from now-former Dot Esports journalist George Geddes claimed that HR told employees that the reason for this latest round was due to GAMUR’s ties to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Tobias Seck and Hongyu Chen officially join The Esports Advocate as contributors.
Walter Wang leaves his role as COO at TSM.
Glen Yang has left his role as League of Legends GM at TSM.
Cory Doggett takes on the role of senior video producer at Complexity Gaming.
Kevin Palmer takes on the role of assistant director of esports and intramurals at the University of Michigan.
Mark Cox has left his role as EMEA director of brand at Riot Games after more than eight years at the company.
Evgeniy Roshchupkin steps down as CEO of Tundra Esports.
Matt Augustin is promoted to VP of brand and creative strategy at FaZe Clan.
Andrew Richter is promoted to senior analyst, insights & business strategy at FaZe Clan.
Harley Parks takes on a new role as sales consultant at Crest INFINITI. Parks is also serving as the CEO of Bearclaw Esports.
Katy Chapel joins Super League Gaming as its new VP of integrated marketing. Previously she worked at 100 Thieves as VP of account management and integrated marketing.
Gaming:
Kevin Carter is promoted to the role of director of product, player experience at Riot Games.
Stephen Stagliano launches Story Games and will serve as CEO. He appears to still be in his role as manager of commercial partnerships at Riot Games.
Juno Blees has left her role as senior game producer - R&D at Riot Games after more than eight years at the company.
Joel Burgess leaves Capybara Games to launch Soft Rains.
Cristopher "soup" Lee joins Razer as its new senior partner manager - monetization for the Razer Media division.
Anders Ekermo has taken on the role of lead software engineer at Blizzard.
Other:
Jelisa V. tackles the role of senior global brand manager for Secret Lair at Wizards of the Coast.
Danny Carrington joins Aigh Vie Limited as marketing director. Carrington used to work for EBET as head of CRM & marketing partnerships.
Craig Chapple takes on the role of head of content at Raptor PR.
Aron Drayer takes on the role of head of marketing at Backbone.
In Other News
📉 FaZe Clan gets its first deficiency notice from Nasdaq.
🎯 Tic Tac Bow—an Olympic Esports Series selection—has been hacked.
👐 China supports Russia’s “Future Games” in 2024.
❓What are Russia’s Future Games, anyway?
💪 TEA chats with the players of TSM’s all-women Apex Legends team.
🚫 Illinois High School Association ditches NBA 2K over PlayVS involvement.
Want to highlight your latest hire? Looking to promote a new job opening? Drop me a line at jamesbfudge@gmail.com with the subject line “People on the Move.”