Editor’s note: At press time, the second episode had not been scheduled or uploaded. The second episode of Esports Playmakers, “The Effect of Esports on High School Students,” was uploaded Nov. 9. Some changes to the article have been made to reflect this.
OCU Esports recently produced the first episode of a new slate of podcasts.
Paul Vaughan, esports coordinator and head coach, said the esports team had many conceptual ideas for this project and decided to create multiple podcasts, so the team could divide and conquer various topics.
“They will be targeting things like the esports industry news, game releases and anything that covers local high school esports teams, as well as our own league,” Vaughan said.
Most of the podcasts are still in development, but the first episode of the “Esports Playmakers” series is available to watch on the OCU Esports YouTube channel.
Vaughan said he hosts “Esports Playmakers,” with the goal of speaking with industry professionals to encourage students to learn what to look for if they pursue a career in esports.
“It’s a show with just me and the guest of the week, talking about how they got to where they are – the insides of the industry,” Vaughan said. “We’re starting our work locally and getting bigger as we go along.”
Vaughan said creating spaces geared toward specific interests and discussion topics can help set the team’s podcasts apart from the rest and possibly bring more prospective students to the program.
“This is really interesting to the niche aspects of the industry,” Vaughan said. “The intention is also definitely to attract people to OCU so that they can see what we’re about.”
“Esports Playmakers” is set to be a weekly series. OCU Esports also plans to release a student-run podcast with monthly episodes and an esports news podcast with twice monthly episodes. The second episode of “Esports Playmakers” was set to be uploaded the week of Oct. 28 but was postponed due to power outages in Oklahoma City.
Jack Broyles, political science/acting sophomore and esports team member, said he especially loved the idea of a news podcast, as it would give students the freedom to do industry-based research and reporting on their own.
“I think that the podcast is going to be a fantastic thing,” Broyles said. “The multimedia people were already wanting to do some sort of covering of this anyway, so this is a really cool way to see what’s happening in the esports world, especially because our peers are the ones bringing us the information.”
Broyles said he looks forward to watching the podcast network and audience grow and hopes it can become a go-to resource for esports news.
“As it’s hard to keep up with everything that goes on in the industry, this kind of podcast allows us to stay involved competitively,” said Broyles.
For additional information and updates, readers can visit OCU Esports on their Facebook group, on Instagram @ocu_esports and on Twitter @OCUEsports.
Leave a Reply