A pro esports player, Ian Ouellet, met Chase Baker at an Olive Garden about two years ago to interview the former pro football player about his online gaming for a Twitch broadcast. And the two quickly hit it off, talking about running podcasts, professional esports and being a successful streamer. They call that their first fateful connection.
“I was just as much interviewing him, and when we walked away from that, it was like, ‘we can do something together,’” Baker said.
With extra time from staying at home at the beginning of the pandemic, the two used the time to form a company born from that moment. Called Connected by Fate, the Frisco-based live broadcasting accelerator firm is looking to help others break into the esports streaming and influencer industry. And the company is now helping power an interactive football league where fans call all of the shots.
At its core, Connected by Fate focuses on all things Twitch. Through its multi-month program, the company helps people become influencers and amateur esports professionals, teaching them to learn content production skills, manage administrative tasks, engineer audio and video and find sponsors, among other things. So far, the company has seen at least three Dallas Cowboys go through its accelerator.
“We want them to be about the genuine, real interactions and making that authentic, different experience on a stream – something you’ve never seen before, that sentence you’ve been waiting to hear but didn’t know existed,” Ouellet said.
The founder’s connections to the professional on-the-field and online sports experience got them recognized by Atlanta-based startup Fan Controlled Football, a league when fans collectively draft real players and call the plays they make on the field in a seven-on-seven matchup. The company first asked Baker to come on as a defensive coordinator and line coach. Ouellet joined the FCF team as a Twitch onboarding project manager.
The inaugural season of the Lightspeed Venture Partners-backed FCF wrapped up recently and is gearing up for a new season in the fall. This coming season, Connected by Fate will be the official agency running Twitch production for FCF, growing from a three-person team to about 10. The FCF league is growing too. Last season, four teams competed, including one with quarterback Johnny Manziel; this season, the league hopes to have six teams competing.
“It’s Madden in real life, fantasy football in real life, where you call the play they run the play, and you feel empowered,” Ouellet said.
Overall, the esports industry and the streaming and influencing industries surrounding could grow to a market size of nearly $2 billion within the next five years. North Texas is a hub of activity, with multiple franchises and esports arenas. Ouellet said part of the reason for the region’s movement is because even at an amateur level, gamers and streamers can make a livable wage. He added that the pandemic has accelerated business with more people at home and looking for connections online. Baker also added that the esports industry creates community, and as communities grow, they attract more to it.
“It takes time for an economic trend to catch on, but I feel like, with esports, that trend has always been there. It just needed the big business, and the big business was too old to understand. The big money was just not there. Now the generational gap is starting to close,” Ouellet said.
As Connected by Fate looks to grow alongside the rest of the industry, it plans to create a “home” for influencers and streamers in the region, focusing on what Ouellet says are the necessary things to be successful in the industry: self-accountability, personal drive and one he says isn’t something that can necessarily be taught, but one needs to have, which he calls the “Elvis factor,” those extra things that draw the audience in. The company also isn’t ruling out potential funding rounds in the future.
“There Is no ceiling to esports, as long as you’re creative, you put some much effort into it, and you meet the right people, you can achieve anything… and the bubble hasn’t burst,” Ouellet said. “Esports is just growing, and you can make anything happen as long as you stick to your core ethos.”
