Jake Lucky isn’t one to waste time. The 25-year-old is up by 5 a.m. and in the office just before 6. By lunch, he has already knocked out the majority of his work for the day and he’s meticulously planning the details of the next one. Such is the life of a popular YouTube personality.
As one of the leading reporters of Las Vegas-based YouTube channel Esports Talk, Lucky breaks down competitive gaming news of the day, several times a day, to an audience of more than 400,000 subscribers. Esports Talk’s prompt and short-form video reporting has captured the attention of esports fans and trailblazers alike.
On Twitter, Lucky uses his humor and powerful news sense to keep the conversation going, appearing in all the right threads at all the right times. Among his 152,000 Twitter followers are esports pioneers like Nadeshot, founder of 100 Thieves, a lifestyle gaming brand co-owned by rapper Drake.
While all eyes might be on Lucky as the “Esports Guy,” he still sees himself as just an “Iowa boy” from western Des Moines. He got his start as a video-game streamer and YouTuber for the massive multiplayer online role-playing game Runescape in high school, but in college, he pivoted to the highly competitive esports title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. When the opportunity to work at Esports Talk arose, Lucky did what any young millennial would do: “I used my YouTube channel as a résumé.”
The reporter recently celebrated three years with Esports Talk and shows no signs of slowing down. We chatted with him about where he sees the industry going and more.
What did your parents think about you turning YouTube and esports into a career? Most loving parents of all time, God bless them, but they definitely were confused about what was going on (laughs]). My dad gets the general gist of these things. But my mom, I mean, she has little to no clue what’s going on. She just knows I’m in the gaming space. But they’re definitely a bit surprised. Growing up, they were not used to these kinds of things being available as jobs. For the last two years of college, where you’re seeking job opportunities for postgrad, my dad and my mom were highly set on [me doing] something in the business field, because that’s steady. So when I was waiting to find a different job, they were a bit nervous.
Streaming and YouTubing are very in-your face jobs— literally. What were those early days like for you, being in front of a camera?Oh, I was an awkward wreck for years. I’m so lucky I had experience doing it first in high school and then again in college. Even when I first started here at Esports Talk, it probably took me another year before [I got comfortable], because the office usually has people in it. … It’s been a constant learning curve. You’re always improving, but you definitely have some awkward moments of, “I’m just sitting here talking to a camera. I’ve got to pretend that there will eventually be people watching this.”
Esports is a billion-dollar business, and sometimes that revenue has nothing to do with gaming. For instance, you see esports companies like 100 Thieves selling thousands of dollars in merch. Is that trend here to stay? Not a doubt in my mind. I think we’re seeing that esports is just as much about gaming as it is about entertainment and bringing in viewers, whether it be through content or your overall brands. That’s why we see the top names where they are now. They’ve figured out that esports doesn’t just directly have to be about competition. These players who compete can also make content, they can also stream and they also can wear clothes that sell. Esports is growing into way more than just the games that these players are playing.
Vegas seemed like it had a good running start on the esports scene, but that momentum has slowed. What does it need to move forward as an esports town?The pandemic certainly hurt, there’s no doubt about that. [Losing] the ability for players to play on LAN [Local Area Network] and everything moving online certainly hurts. Something a lot of other cities are looking into is the crossover between the stadiums and arenas being built that can also be used for esports events. So [it’s about] finding a way for Las Vegas to entangle itself in not just concerts, not just gambling and not just sporting events, but to have esports and gaming events, which I know we’re slowly getting our way to, and I think will come back eventually.
What advice would you give someone aspiring to become a streamer or an esports reporter? Keep going. Always stay interactive and build yourself something that you’re proud to show off as a potential résumé builder in the future. You never know the future. Six, seven years ago, I was playing Runescape on my mom’s laptop in my basement, and all of a sudden, three years after that I’m streaming on my own PC. Three years after that, I’m making my own videos. Just keep going, because you never know.
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