ESPORTS EXPERIENCE
Marie been into esports since its early days (2001), when she registered her first CS clan on Clanbase. Initially, she spent every minute aside studies on esports, and grew the world’s then-biggest community for female gaming – Femina Gaming (renamed Femina United). Until 2010, Marie and her team organized online and LAN tournaments at Dreamhack for many years, and ran a newssite and a forum.
Between 2010 – 2021 Marie was a game developer by day and esports vigilante at night fielding roles such as content creator, caster, analyst, tournament organizer and coach. Eventually she combined her careers and came to develop and lead her own esports games, as Game Director.
Since 2022, Marie runs her own consultancy where she is spending equal parts of her time in gamedev and esports, often combined.
Nowadays, Marie is active in esports as:
- Stage host for gaming- and esports conferences
- Brand Ambassador for Flashe Gaming, maker of performance gaming gear
- Speaker at esports business conferences
- Advisor for game studios developing esports games
- Strategic advisor for esports orgs
Marie is always passionate and open to be involved in more initiatives within esports – get in touch if you have something of interest.
ROLES
Stage Host
Professional stage host, traveling around the world hosting esports business conferences and events. Marie also used to star weekly in a TV show talking about games.
Experience includes:
- Several Dreamhacks
- Playcon
- Dubai Esports Festival
- Gamesground
- Meltdown esports bars
Find a longer rundown in the hosting section.
Business Development & Ambassador
Flashe Gaming is the innovation-leading maker of performance gear for gamers using their patented technology (FTP). Their products are used by several esports teams and gaming companies such as G2 and Ubisoft.
In my role, I represent them at events, connect them with my wide network in esports as well as provide strategic business advice.
Board Member
Marie was a board member for Female Legends in 2023, helping the organization push on in their quest that took over in the vacuum after Marie’s own org, Femina United (formerly Femina Gaming).
Female Legends was founded in 2016 and its mission is to support gaming as a hobby for women and non-binaries.
Strategic Advisor
Advisor for the strategic direction with 10N8E Esports, the premier Esports solution provider in Africa, committed to delivering comprehensive online and offline experiences, through tournaments, immersive offline centers, premium contents and talent management.
Player relations
Implicit role – managed relations with the community of the esports game for which I was Lead Designer – The Cycle.
- Organized round tables with players
- Went undercover as tournament participant to learn more about the player experience
- Visited streams and tournament broadcasts to make players feel seen
- Discussed tournament competitive rulings and came with recommendations
- Starred as guest in community-run tournaments
- Starred in official community streams with Q & A
- Crowned ‘Queen Mejerwall’ by the pro player community
Tournament Organizer
Organized tournament ‘SMITE Night’ at Meltdown Montréal esports bar:
- Pitched concept & sold it to bar owners, was awarded a budget
- Coordinated with publisher Hi-Rez for prizes and graphics
- Decorated bar with posters, portraits (of SMITE characters) and banners
- Developed customs drinks
- Social media promotion
- Trivia
- Schedule and brackets
- Hosting & Casting
- Prize Ceremony and awards
- ‘Recruited’ special guests such as pro player Paindeviande and famous caster Kaelaris
Content creator
Twitch Affiliate. Streaming various games meanwhile entertaining viewers on Twitch. Hosted RollerCoaster Tycoon devstreams for beta weekends. Produced a game series called ‘Diamond Duos’ where I show off new Smite gameplay.
Managed my profile, produced intro video segments, created graphics, stream software setup, stream plugins, music, camera, lighting and greenscreen, as well as starred and moderated live chat. Also – social media.
The show started on Twitch with streaming and later migrated to YouTube.
Coach
Coached several SMITE teams – BOT Empire (semi-professional org), Commitment Committee and Sunbreakers.
Responsibilities:
- Scheduled scrims
- Conducted video reviews
- Scouted opponents (picks & bans)
- Set strategies for picks and bans
- Set gameplan
- Mentored players
One of my teams reached top #12 position and was just below the SMITE Pro League; afterwards, many players were snatched by top teams and became pro players, such as MandoWarrior, SoloOrTroll and Oswaald.
Host, Caster & Producer
Broadcasted ESL’s weekly SMITE tournaments, Conquest of the Gods. Produced the tournament broadcast in its entirety, only assisted by tournament admins who got the games started. All on volunteer basis.
Preparation – Production & design
- Storyboarding
- Graphics and animations
- Segment transitions
- Streaming software setup
- Audio setup
- Camera setup
- Styling
- Lighting
- Social media promotion
Live – Starring – host, commentator & observer:
- Intro host segments
- Changing screens
- Pre-game predictions
- Coordinating with game admins, getting into the lobbies
- Observing
- Casting
- Post-game analysis
- Showing standings, brackets
- Outro segments
- Interacting with viewers and invoking engagement
Host & Caster
Broadcasted ESL’s weekly SMITE tournaments, Conquest of the Gods. Produced the tournament broadcast in its entirety, only assisted by tournament admins who got the games started. All on volunteer basis.
Main Caster for weekly SMITE tournament ‘Battle For Valhalla’ for online community SMITE Central, broadcasted 2-3 per week on Twitch.
Work between shows
- Putting together statistics
- Networking with players
- Watching scrims
- Analyzing past games
- Player interviews
- Predictions
- Discussing show segments and improvements
- Practice with co-caster
On-air:
- Hostess
- Commentating play by play
- Follow-up on analysis
- Moderating chat and interacting with players
PR Manager
Working as Public Relations Manager for game Lineage of Conquest (later named Dynastica) and their presence at DreamHack.
Responsible for:
- Press contacts, interviews
- Visitor events
- Stage performances
- Marketing content in fliers, homepage and exhibition booth (design, logistics and implementation)
Manager for Female Gaming Community & Tournament Organizer
I was there when esport took its first steps, and was part of grassroot movement growing the Counter-Strike scene on IRC, on online communites, Internet cafés and LAN:s. We were leading the initiative on the female esports scene, hosting the largest female gaming community at the time (3000 members). We had an online ladder and league and hosted tournaments at DreamHack, the world’s then biggest LAN party (or game festival as people say nowadays).
Responsible for booth, tournaments at multiple DreamHacks:
- Recruit and co-lead team, handle logistics
- Planning & budget
- Set up tournament format, rules, brackets and schedule
- Design the booth, crew t-shirts, flyers etc
- Take care of the teams & translators
- Tournament Head Admin (Counter-Strike)
- Host onstage in front of an audience of thousands
Responsible for partner relations:
- Putting together competition concepts, product placement on site, booth and stage
- Negotiate prizes, booth space, stage time and operating cost contribution
- Reports & thank-you’s to partners
Site administration:
- Articles, coverage, reviews
- Product placement and ad sponsoring
- Online update news and standings on our portal and social media
