That gives VENN financial connections to
esports’ biggest titles — Riot owns League of
Legends, Blizzard is behind Overwatch and Call
of Duty, and Epic publishes Fortnite — as well as
some of its biggest teams.
“We could go to these luminaries in the industry
and say, ‘Hey, we want to come together, be
swift, work with a bunch of different titles, a
bunch of different publishers and move the
industry forward in terms of its recognition and
prominence, will you help us?’” Kusin said. “The
answer was a resounding yes.”
Horn’s presence is a big part of that. Formerly
a sports producer at NBC, he has become a
pioneering figure in esports. His achievements
included a sports Emmy in 2017 for his role in
landing an augmented reality dragon inside a
stadium during the 2017 League of Legends
World Championships opening ceremony and a
successful New Year’s Eve stream by Ninja from
Times Square last year.
“Taking what’s already there on a platform that
(gamers) understand, and taking that into a
network environment, that’s what we’re looking
to do,” Horn said.