It was another week of layoffs in the esports and gaming industry, but we like to dwell on the positives in this newsletter because we highlight people GETTING new jobs, not LOSING them (if you want to read about those layoffs this week, visit TEA).
You may also have noticed from this week’s header image that I joined The Academy of Esports podcast earlier this week to talk about games journalism and Quake! Please check it out, it’s a pretty good conversation.
Anyway, onto this week’s news. - James Fudge.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Victor Frascarelli leaves journalism to join FURIA as its new executive PR lead.
James Shilkret joins Ubisoft as the new associate director of esports for the North America.
Julie Simpson joins BLAST as the new head of events.
Sam Morris joins Spacestation Gaming's broadcast wing Airlock as live events and broadcast manager.
Eric Ward joins the Indiana Pacers as the new team operations coordinator for Pacers Gaming.
Halina Malik is promoted to head of marketing at eFuse.
Marc Urbino leaves his role as senior manager, internal business content at 100 Thieves after five years at the company.
Ben Brooks takes on the role of chief of staff at Evil Geniuses, reporting directly to CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson.
Luke Burdon joins Ninjas in Pyjamas as senior partnerships manager.
Stephen Halphen is promoted to art director of broadcast operations at eFuse.
Grzegorz Łatka joins Streamcoi as its new marketing manager.
Stephen Cieplik joined Team Liquid as chief revenue officer in December.
Austin Kolsut is promoted to director of esports at Clover Talent.
Jaaahsh (real name unknown) joins Team Liquid as a talent strategist.
Gaming:
Brian Birmingham, former World of Warcraft Classic lead, resigns from Blizzard.
Kate Hall joins Vicarious Visions as its new PR account manager next week.
Scott Lowe joins Firewalk Studios as director of communications.
Callum Owen-Vallentin leaves his role as brand manager at Ubisoft.
Samuel Fernandez joins the Warcraft Arclight Rumble team at Blizzard as an environment artist.
Other:
Amanda Solomon leaves her role as CEO of X1 Talent to join Viral Nation as its new director of partnerships.
Nick Moran is promoted to gaming & esports PR Associate at JSA+Partners.
Sanchit Agarwal is promoted to principal analyst, digital forensics response at Sony.
Marcus D. Sallis leaves eFuse to join Fanatics.
Joe Errico joins Excel Sports Management as senior coordinator.
Ben Bianchi leaves the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium to join SponsorUnited on the brand partnership team.
Haley Weiss joins TIME as a reporter on the health and science team.
Michael Goroff and the rest of the EGMNow staff get laid off.
Mark Medina is promoted to senior video producer, Guides at IGN.
Jess Thomas leaves her role at Heaven Media.
Gilad Rodkin is promoted to EVP, head of global business development at Crypto.com.
Ben Jepson leaves his role as senior brand partnerships manager IMG Marketing London.
Henry Casey is promoted to managing editor at Tom's Guide.
Danny Carrington is no longer the head of marketing at EBET.
In Other News…
💰 Ludwig buys into Moist Esports.
👑 Guild Esports player wins $1M from Mr. Beast for Fortnite win.
👎🏼 FTC meddles with EU in Microsoft-Activision Blizzard acquisition probe.
💵 SEA (Free Fire owner) looks to offload Canadian game developer.