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Huge news this week when Vindex acquired Belong Gaming Arenas and made a promise to expand localized esports venues to thousands of locations around the world. We'll talk about what this means to the esports industry overall and where it leads. College and high school esports come into the mix when talking local, as well.

Two star League of Legends players in their prime. One replaces the other on a team. How are decisions like this made? How do we assess talent? What goes into building a team?We'll discuss this and more on today's episode.

Matthew Ball, former Head of Strategy for Amazon Studios, wrote an excellent piece on esports that can be found here: https://www.matthewball.vc/all/esportsrisksToday we dive into some of the particulars of his piece and discuss some long term implications on the esports industry.

In our kickoff episode, we dive into the biggest topic of our times, COVID19. Like many industries, esports has been vastly affected by the pandemic and here we take a close look at where we can see some of the positive upticks.1 - Traditional sports using video games to reach their sports audiences2 - Gambling legalization for esports3 - TV broadcasting of major esports events4 - Crossover interactions between gaming/esports influencers and celebs from the rest of entertainment5 - Play and viewership numbers skyrocketing for esports and gaming

Introduction to the IGL Podcast, a new podcast about the esports industry. Meet your host, esports veteran Marty Strenczewilk, and learn more about the podcast.