Name: Squad up? Pro athletes linking up more and more with professional gamers, exposing both to new audiences
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Squad up? Pro athletes linking up more and more with professional gamers, exposing both to new audiences

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12:36 PM on May 7, 2020 CDTBack in high school, James Eubanks didn’t want people to know how good he was at video games.A decade later, it’s impossible to ignore.Eubanks is a 28-year-old Call of Duty professional who regularly games with fame. With over 700,000 Twitter followers, and as a member of the , he gets to play with professional musicians and athletes -- not to mention high-profile streamers who have helped introduce a new generation to gaming.Instead of stereotyped as a nerd who spends all of his time with a controller in his hands, he is seen as an elite competitor.Over the past few years, professional gamers like Eubanks -- whose in-game handle is Clayster -- have come more into the mainstream.Part of their rise in popularity has been thanks to collaboration with celebrities like pro athletes, many of whom are just as into gaming as the pros. And the jocks aren’t afraid to talk about it, either.Over the past two months, professional sports in North America have shuttered and athletes have remained, for the most part, inside their home. But during that time, there’s been an influx of athletes streaming video games and reaching out to pro gamers to squad up.When Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes tweets about his Call of Duty or Fortnite accolades, it’s hard to dismiss.“It’s literally the best in their field,” said Eubanks, who in the last few weeks, with his Empire teammates, has teamed up with a handful of NBA and NHL players to play the latest iteration of Call of Duty. “Athletes (and musicians) playing these games have been the best in their field ... I definitely am pretty happy that the perception around gaming has changed from something that I had to hide to something that I’m super proud of.”It’s lit — timthetatman👑 (@timthetatman)Take a cursory scroll over some of your favorite player’s Twitter accounts over the past month, and you can see Joey Gallo playing MLB: The Show, Stephen Johns competing in NHL 20 or Ezekiel Elliott linking up with noted streamer Tim “TimtheTatman” Betar.Even before the pandemic suddenly gave them some extra down time, North Texas was all in on professional gaming and esports.Billionaires like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or Ken Hersh, CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and oil magnate, have invested millions into esports organizations, which pay lucrative salaries to the the best of the best in gaming.Related:Home to two powerhouse esports brands in Envy Gaming in Downtown Dallas and Complexity Gaming in Frisco, professional sports franchises have either already partnered or have upped their collaboration.The Mavericks, FC Dallas and Cowboys all have official ties to pro gaming, be it partnering with pro gamers in the NBA 2K League or eMLS or literal brick-and-mortar partnerships. Complexity last year rebranded to align itself with the Cowboys, and its home base is at The Star in Frisco, adjacent to the Cowboys’ facility.The Stars, Rangers and Wings also had their pros participate in online gaming events over the past two months. Even Texas Motor Speedway hosted a virtual race during the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.What's the one thing you can do in CHEL that you wish you could do in real life? with the top-shelf response! He and battle and Zach Aston-Reese. 🎮 WATCH: vs. 👉 — Sportsnet (@Sportsnet)FC Dallas defender and United States international Reggie Cannon said pro athletes around his age, 21, grew up playing video games. They see games as a way to relax but also to keep in touch with friends and teammates.Cannon rattles off the list of gamers on FC Dallas or the U.S. men’s team as if he’s naming a starting 11.“We have a lot of gamers on the team -- Matt (Hedges), Paxton (Pomykal), Bryan Reynolds, Thomas Roberts -- we have a bunch of gamer guys,” Cannon said. “It’s been such a nice past time because it’s something to just kind of ease your mind, get away from all the stress, all the pressure that’s happening right now.”Gallo recently competed in MLB The Show Players League, finishing 23-6 in the regular season before bowing out in the quarterfinals to Cubs infielder Ian Happ. He said the league was time consuming, but the players and fans made it fun. A number of games were broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, FS1 and MLB Network.On the road, he and teammate Ronald Guzman fairly regularly had adjoining rooms so they can open a door between the rooms and talk live to each other while gaming.“There are quite a few guys who play; we don’t play in the clubhouse, but we do play a lot together,” said Gallo, who added that the gulf between pro gamers and himself is pretty obvious. “It’s a good way to be with each other. I’d say games are pretty prevalent.”Dinner is on me 😂 — Joey Gallo (@JoeyGallo24)Mavericks forward Justin Jackson, who has about 1,500 followers on Twitch, a streaming platform, often brings his PlayStation with him on Mavericks road trips. Since the Call of Duty League started in January, he has become a fan of the Empire, taking in their weekend matches and tweeting his support.Jackson, who hosted a charity stream last week, appreciates what it takes to be a professional gamer.“Just being able to kind of mix those two different worlds is pretty dope,” Jackson said, “and then also seeing what they do on a daily basis and seeing how much time they put in, it’s pretty cool.”You know who I’m rockin with!! !! — Justin Jackson (@JJacks_44)There’s mutual admiration or respect between elite pro gamers and pro athletes, just like there would be for anyone at the top of their competitive industry.Eubanks, a diehard Green Bay Packers fan, has played with some of his favorite team’s players.“It’s funny because I’ll follow them (on Twitter),” he said, “and they’ll be like, ‘hey, man, I’m a huge fan,’ and like, wait, I’m a huge fan.”Professional Madden player Drini Gjoka, the 2019 Madden Bowl champion, said players at the top of their respective profession share similar traits, like outworking the competition and putting in the hours to be the best.Gjoka, who represents Complexity, was blown away that NFL players wanted to play with him. Gjoka, 20, has played Madden against a number of NFL players and also offered some tips to those who reach out. He’s also had some sessions with Cowboys at training camp in California.“When I went to the Cowboys training camp and I played with them, they looked at me kind of the same way I looked at them,” said Gjoka, who is currently competing in the 2020 Madden Bowl. “Like, shoot, I want to be on the field with them to see how good they are.”Tomorrow is a day off practice so tonight we have a full house in our Gaming Lounge! — Complexity Gaming (@Complexity), the No. 1 overall pick by Mavs Gaming in the 2018 2KLeague draft has met a handful of celebrities through gaming and said he is close friends with Mavs player Dorian Finney-Smith.At a recent Thanksgiving event with the Mavericks, he recalls having a conversion with All-Star Kristaps Porzingis, who was just as interested in him as Boyd was in the 7-footer.“He had so many questions for me just about the 2K game,” Boyd said. “I explained to him that we do everything those guys do, just virtually. So he was just amazed at how everything was set up and how real and serious it was.“Then I had so many questions and vice versa for him. We are doing the same things but there was still so much unknown for each other.”Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson wasn’t allowed to play video games on weekdays growing up, so he relished the weekends when he could game.“Growing up you hear parents always saying stop playing video games, go outside,” said the second-year pro and two-time NCAA champion. “Now you can see guys can make a lot of money playing video games.”Always into gaming, but never on a professional level, Brunson said he started recognizing the scope of the professional industry when Tyler “Ninja” Blevins burst into the mainstream, and 16-year old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won the $3 million Fortnite World Cup. Blevins earned $17 million in 2019, according to .The enormity of the landscape struck him.Mike “Hastr0” Rufail, 36, the owner and CEO of Envy Gaming, is a former professional Call of Duty player. He said there has long been crossover between professional gaming and other celebrities, but it’s more apparent now.Porter pointed to Blevins’ Fortnite stream with rappers Drake and Travis Scott and Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in March 2018 that helped put professional streaming and gaming in front of hundreds of thousands of new fans. At the time, it was the most-streamed event in Twitch history.Two years ago, squaded up with , and in a Fortnite session that broke the internet 💥(h/t ) — ESPN (@espn)“That one stream really made video games cool,” said Porter, 26. “ … A whole bunch of athletes, a whole bunch of people just kind of came out of the woodwork, like, ‘hey, I play video games all the time.’”Fortnite later collaborated with the NFL, releasing purchasable skins so gamers could flaunt their NFL allegiances, and Blevins appeared on the cover of ESPN: The Magazine.Yesterday i played fortnite for the first time in a while and someone killed me with my jersey on.. don’t know how i feel about it...— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes)Rufail, who was in his playing prime about a decade ago, said casual gamers are converted more and more to esports fans every day.Professional esports leagues have also started to mirror formats of traditional sporting leagues, also appearing on national TV broadcasts.“It’s safe to say that anyone below the age of 45 years old has grown up with some kind of gaming,” Rufail said. “Now it’s definitely one of the most engaging and active forms of entertainment out there."I think lots of people are going to be exposed to esports here, a lot more people and it seems like our sport is continuing to grow.”Staff reporters Sean Collins and Evan Grant contributed to this article.Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox.By signing up you agree to our

12:36 PM on May 7, 2020 CDTBack in high school, James Eubanks didn’t want people to know how good he was at video games.A decade later, it’s impossible to ignore.Eubanks is a 28-year-old Call of Duty professional who regularly games with fame. With over 700,000 Twitter followers, and as a member of the , he gets to play with professional musicians and athletes -- not to mention high-profile streamers who have helped introduce a new generation to gaming.Instead of stereotyped as a nerd who spends all of his time with a controller in his hands, he is seen as an elite competitor.Over the past...

Squad up? Pro athletes linking up more and more with professional gamers, exposing both to new audiences

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