The Future of Esports: Titus Walker's Vision for UEL

In this episode, Titus Walker, the founder and CEO of the Ultimate End Gamers League (UEL), shares his inspiring journey from a career in sales to leading a multi-genre gaming platform. UEL is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion within the gaming community by offering a wide range of games and creating a welcoming environment for all. The league also provides educational courses in cybersecurity and computer game design, aiming to empower the next generation of gamers. Titus discusses his long-term goals for UEL, including expanding the league, increasing player earnings, and positioning gaming as a mainstream sport. UEL's seasons are held in person at their arena in Virginia and are streamed on multiple platforms, making the league accessible to a global audience.


Takeaways

• UEL focuses on diversity and inclusion in the gaming community by offering a wide range of games and creating a sense of community.
• They provide educational courses in cybersecurity and computer game design to empower the next generation.
• Titus's long-term goals for UEL include expanding the league, increasing player earnings, and positioning gaming as a mainstream sport.
• UEL seasons are held in person at their arena in Virginia and streamed on multiple platforms.

Sound Bites

• "Games are all pretty much the same skills with different graphics."
• "I love you because I need you to teach me something."
• "Taking on the challenge of empowering a generation of kids and offering them classrooms."

#TitusWalker #UEL #UltimateEndGamersLeague #Gaming #Leadership #FutureGoals #Diversity #Inclusion #UEL #UltimateEndGamersLeague #Gaming #Esports #Education #Cybersecurity #ComputerGameDesign #Diversity #Inclusion #UEL #UltimateEndGamersLeague #DanaWhite

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to another episode of Leadership Talks. I'm your host, Martin Rowinski and today we have a very special guest joining us. Titus Walker, the visionary founder and CEO of the Ultimate End Gamers League, UEL, is here to share his incredible journey from sales at Geico, or maybe started even earlier than that when he was four years old. to leading one of the most expensive multi -genre gaming platforms in the world. Titus is not just a leader in the e -sports industry, he's a pioneer in transforming competitive gaming into a diverse and inclusive culture. Welcome to the show Titus. Thank you so much for having me. That's an awesome intro. I appreciate that. Absolutely, you deserve it. So, you I joked about earlier in four years old, know you started gaming with your dad when you were four. So, more to combat, I believe. But you do have an impressive background when it comes to work. You started in sales at Geico and moving through various roles before you decided to found UEL. Can you share how your experiences in sales and community management have shaped your leadership style and prepared you for your role as CEO? Yeah, yeah, I appreciate the research done too. I see you did your research. Yeah, I mean, it made such a major impact that understanding first with Geico and sales, mean, that helped me understand people and how to really sell the vision to people. Insurance is not an easy sale. I'd say the easiest part of it is everybody has to have it, but... After that, it's pretty much everybody hates to buy it too, right? And nobody wants to keep it. So that was learning how to accept a no over and over, a majority of the time was a really important lesson that I learned over there. then in community building and in real estate, once I got into that, I didn't recognize what it was teaching me, it really did. It taught me how to position myself in the best possible way so that As soon as somebody is coming into my community, I have something to offer that person. One of the biggest issues you have when you're in real estate development, which is what I was doing, is somebody walks in and you only have, you can't, it's not like a real estate agent. We weren't real estate agents. You couldn't just show them every house that's available. You had a specific. amount of houses and you couldn't change the floor plans, right? So you had to sell them what you had and you had to be able to position yourself correctly to make sure that the people that were walking in the door, had something for them or you could sell them the vision enough to get them to have that emotional buy -in to purchase what it is that you are offering. That's awesome. And one of the standout aspects of UEL is its commitment to diversity and inclusion. How have you managed to create a league that not only focuses on competitive gaming, but also champions diversity and provides opportunities for everyone? I think that a lot of the problems with diversity in gaming now is because the other leagues will say always have a focus on a single game, you're really only going to reach a certain community. I always say it like this, games are all pretty much the same skills with different graphics, right? And so, you know, everybody has the same controller for Xbox. Everybody has the same keyboard and mouse for a computer. It's the same skills. It's just different rules, different graphics. And so most people will gravitate to the skills that they already have or the ones that they already use in their daily life. And so you're playing games that speak to how you already operate. And so what that does is start to, even though it's meant to be like anybody can play in it, it's the language that everybody can speak. When you really narrow it down and say, okay, we're playing this game, then you eliminate all the other skills and the other types of people that play the other types of games and have those other types of skills. So you can't really create an inclusive or diverse league without first being diverse in the type of games that you play. And so that is really been the focus since the beginning. And the reason why we have such a diverse Set up and how we put even how we play the games, you know, we have 33 different games that everyone has to be able to play and so If I'm playing you and you come in and you're you know a shooting game player and I'm a sports game player You know, yeah. Yeah, I can normally pick them. But anyways, no, I don't know I'm just No, but you know you if you if you are and I'm a sports game player I need your skills because I need you to teach me how to play shooting games And you need my skills because I need to teach you how to play fighting games or sports games or whatever I play. Right. And so not only is it a situation where, you know, diversity is happening, but then on top of that, it's celebrated. Right. Like I love you because I need you to teach me something. Right. I appreciate you because I need you to teach me. So it's and vice versa. Right. We both have things to offer each other. And so it creates this sense of community. where everybody really is collaborating and our community is as good as it gets. It is top notch. Yeah, and I agree. mean, you guys most recently updated your website. Looks great. Looks fantastic. Yeah, looks awesome. But one component that really caught my attention is beyond video gaming, which I mean, every kid has a dream, right? I want to be an esports king. I'm gonna make a million dollars. And of course, parents are like, there's no money in gaming. But in, in addition to that, you offer something that I actually might be dumb and just haven't seen it, but you make it stand out. You're taking on the challenge of empowering a generation of these kids and offering them classrooms. And that includes courses like cybersecurity, computer game design. I mean, that's taken it to a next level. Where did that idea come from? So we actually have been, once we determined the different skills and we brought on a doctor, Elise, and she has helped us improve our curriculum for the skills that are determined in gaming. Shooting games are really just hand -eye coordination and spatial awareness and understanding your opponent. Those are all real life skills. So finding a way to teach those in the classroom. is important because that's how you reach the kids that are already doing those things. And a lot of times you, we don't ever speak to those because most parents don't even recognize that those skills are learned in those games, right? Like the, they, I learned to overcome in gaming, right? I learned how to play a game, you know, and learn to develop skills to, then overcome things that seem impossible in the beginning. And over time you learn to develop the skills that are necessary to beat that game. And that kind of That's the language of gaming that a lot of the older generation just doesn't speak, but they know what hand -eye coordination is. They know what pattern recognition is. They know what memorization is. They know what all those things are. And those are all the skills that are taught in gaming. It's just in a digital environment. And a lot of times the people playing the game don't have the ability to articulate what it is that they're actually learning. So they just think, you're just playing Call of Duty, when in reality, there's so much more to it. So finding a way to bridge that gap is extremely important to us. And then on top of that, there are so many things like you said in game development and cybersecurity and all of the avenues outside of gaming. I think that you're right in that you don't see a lot of that, but what you do see a lot of is the workforce development programs and those types of things. A lot of people try to create those, but A lot of times you notice they're not necessarily in gaming, so they don't know how to communicate it or don't effectively communicate it. And so what ends up happening is they start trying to push the kids to do something else other than gaming because they believe that there isn't money in gaming. When in reality, like there is, you just have to find out how to develop it, right? Like the military is using military, you know, airplanes, they're all using simulators and gaming. systems, know, Elise who came from the Space Force, they learned how to pilot the, they're learning how to pilot in space from video games and simulators, right? And so gaming is a very important part of the future, but finding the way to educate that next, the generation prior is just as vital, right? Because we shouldn't wait, you know, 30 years to, to have the next generation take over and then it becomes a thing. It's already a thing, it should be a thing, and we should find ways to implement those real life skills or show how they are implemented in real life. And that is a big focus of ours. That's awesome. And I know you already mentioned briefly, but you started on Sega Genesis when you were four years old. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I started with Mortal Kombat, which is a terrible game, but at least for a four -year-old. It's a great game, but it's not for a four -year -old. But I mean, it was what my dad was playing, and it really allowed me to equal the playing field, right? That was what I loved about it. Everyone was on the same playing field, right? We both have two fingers or two thumbs, right? We both have the... That's all we needed. Once you had that... From there, it's all up here. And that's really what I loved about it. It was like an equalizer. And so I try my best when developing this league, that was the main focus of mine. How do we equalize it? How do we make it to where anybody can get in with enough work, with enough effort? And that also creates this diversity that doesn't end up just being, mean, 38 % of our audience and of our gamer base is women, right? And I think it's like 70 % is people of color. It's like, it's very, very diverse and it's on purpose, but it's also not like, it's not in a, what's the word? It's not like we are just saying it. We're really doing it. We're not just pretending to champion it. It's something that we were doing by design. Yeah, you're standing behind your mission and vision. Absolutely. And when was it the first time you stepped outside of a console or have you ever played on a PC or anything? I I play like I've always gamed But I've always been in like an Xbox. I always just loved the Xbox so like when when we first started a lot of the games were played on Xbox then a lot of I got educated by the community and PCs would run and smoother and so we have a good mix though. have you console games PC games mobile games with our a with our move into Africa, we're going to be bringing in a lot more mobile games as well. that's awesome. That would be great. I obviously I'm a lot older than you are my first game. I don't even know if you ever heard of it, but made by a company called Nova logic called Delta Force. I feel like I have heard of that actually. Back in the day, I had a website, CombatWorld .com. I didn't create a league like you did, but I had quite a few events I hosted. And they were international, actually, team tournaments. So Delta Force was like a team effort. So capture the flag, blah, blah. So. Yeah, that sounds sick. I feel like I've heard of that. do you still, are you still on the dev team or is that, is that like. No, so the only thing I do now and I haven't played in quite a few months now, but I do jump on Call of Duty once in a while. Yeah, that's my go -to. Can you elaborate on your long -term goals for UEL and how you plan to continue breaking barriers and uniting people through the love of the game? Yeah, I mean, we've always stated that we're going to be in the Olympics. I think that we're really the only, only obvious or the only, we'll say, true path forward for the Olympics. mean, the way they're, they're structuring it, you know, Olympics is only every four years. So, you know, by in four years, a game is dead, right? It starts, it may be great when you first announce it. but then you're gonna have all these people training and practicing and all that stuff like that. And on that fourth year, nobody will play that game anymore because it's kind of irrelevant. That's the funny part of gaming is that it evolves so quickly with technology. And so a four -year -old game is like, that's an old game, right? Like, next, like, you know, a six -month -old game is an old game right now. So, no, I think... Olympics for sure. I think we will continue to expand into other states and expand and add new teams to the league. Well, I know we're doing that. Our goal is to continue to push the envelope in how much we're paying players to participate. So right now, our top tier gamers are making $100 ,000. We want to push that to a million. And so we just want to keep pushing that envelope and showing what's possible. I mean, we know gaming is bigger than any sport. Gaming is bigger than movies and TV combined. Gaming is bigger than movies and music combined. And so, you know, we know that's the case, but that's gaming as a whole, right? And so we have to put together something that really speaks to gaming as a whole in order to capture gaming as a whole, right? Instead of we pick one game. And then that one game is not all of gaming. So it is not bigger than movies and music. It is not bigger. There is no game that is bigger than movies. So no matter how big the biggest game is, think Call of Duty is one of the biggest, right? And it's like, think 20 or 200 million, let's say 200. Let's just say the bigger number, right? 200 million gamers playing it. That's still a small, very small population of gamers. I mean, we're talking, that's not even 1 % of the gaming. community, right? So in order to capture a larger percentage of the gaming community, we really have to focus on diversity and then we can speak to the gaming statistics and that would be the goal. Awesome. And I know you run a UEL or at least I think I do, you can correct me, but you run it in seasons and you're on season nine starting in like 130 days or something. Yes, season nine actually started last week. So, yep, we're getting ready for season 10. during season nine, we promote for season 10. yeah, season nine started. actually, today is technical timeout at, I think it's at 8 p or 6 p I'm horrible for not knowing, but then tomorrow we actually have a match. This week is gonna be electric too. There's gonna be so many good matches this week. So they start at 6pm tomorrow, so it's going to be fun. Awesome. And how long do the seasons last? Say OK, so quite a while. year. Yeah, two seasons a year. That's awesome. And are they televised or anything or just streaming? We stream them across eight platforms. We don't put them on television at this point. We've gotten offers from some channels that are on Roku or Apple TV, that type of stuff, but we haven't taken any exclusive deals at this point. got it. And when you guys are in season playing, you said next week's going to be good. What are the players coming to a central spot or is everybody remote? Nope, everybody's in person. They all come to the arena that we have in in Fredericksburg. Yeah, in Virginia. Yeah. I saw you were located in Virginia. Okay. So, so do people travel from quite the distance to get there? Really? out from Vegas. We actually just had a player that moved from Vegas for the season, Yeah, and we've had that happen a lot. We have a lot of players from New York. We have players from further down south. We have, they're kind of all over. Have you taken it on the road as far as having it somewhere else or is there always going to be in Virginia? We've done events elsewhere, but because we're not like... Most esports companies are doing an event like every six months. We're doing an event four days a week. So it's like we have to have a home base. can't really, right now at least, eventually we'll get to a point where there's arenas kind of all over and the teams are traveling to different locations similar to like NBA, NFL. But for now, we need a home base because there's a game every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, right? So you have to... We're consistently putting out content. so that this becomes a different, it's a different animal altogether. Yeah, no, I mean, just the fact that you guys are not focused on one game, which would make it obviously a lot easier to travel. You're you're playing different games. There's a diverse factor behind it. So home base is probably a good idea. So what what's next in your journey? Man, I would say up next for me is a lot of this. A lot of like, you know, appearances, doing pot, just awareness, bringing all around awareness. I've got a lot of travel that I have to do. Not my favorite thing, but could be worse, I guess. And then, yeah, just getting the word out. That is the goal for me. We have a really good team. Our team is rock solid. There's a team that manages the production side of it. There's a team that manages the education side of it. There's a team that manages the hub side. There's a lot of different avenues of this business and mine is simply just awareness right now. I did all the other stuff. This is probably my least favorite of all the things that I've had to do, but I think I... I've been told I'm good at it, so I'll keep doing it. Yeah, just keep smiling and keep doing it. When it comes to partnership, I know you guys have a lot of partnerships. I'm guessing some of the money comes from partnerships too and advertising and is that on your shoulders? Less than 5 % of it. We have a partnership and marketing team, but less than 5 % of our revenue comes from that. yeah, Oase and Kevin there and Brandon there. So we have our CMO, our partnerships person, and then Jimmy actually handles all of our developer relationships as well. we have a team that does it. Awesome. And when it comes to your team and specifically leadership team, would you say not to be age specific, but would you say you're the youngest on the team? I'm curious. Hmm. I think so. I had a feeling you would say that. I think so. Yeah, I never thought about that, ever. Yeah. Well, it's a good thing. I was just curious. don't, you know, I don't put age with experience. You can be super young and you've gone through hell and you got tons of experience. So, yeah, that's not always a factor of experience, but how do you, how do you work on your leadership as far as like with all the different leaders? I mean, do you have a specific pattern? Do you think you have a specific? Leadership skillset that you bring to a table that works or you just Mr. Positive go get it done. So, have never thought of that fact. That's weird. It's got me tripped up a little bit. No, think so. I do a lot of reading. Audible. So not reading, reading, but audible, like, you on the road. And I try and read a lot of like leadership books to try and learn. you know, what are my leadership skills or how to enhance or improve my leadership skills. I think the one thing that I would hope that the team appreciates about me is I'm a pretty open book and I try to keep everybody as much on the same page as possible, but I'm also really good at understanding people's skills and potential. think that is one of my very I think I'm skilled at that. think I can see potential. I can see that doesn't mean you're going to live up to it, but I can see it right. And I can speak to it and I can try and get it out of you and put you in a position to be successful. From there, I also, because I can see it, I can appreciate it. And I'm very appreciative for the skills that people put towards my, you know, my baby or our baby at this point. And so As I've grown the team with a lot of care and appreciation, I think that everybody's kind of grown to understand that about each other. You may not agree with this person, but there's going to be a level of respect there. And you're going to understand that I don't know everything, you don't know everything. And it's important that we don't know everything and that we understand that because If we know everything, we're of no value in a sense, right? Or they're of no value. So it's important for them to understand their value by you treating it as you don't know anything, right? Even if you know a little something, it's like, this is your department, help me understand. And I may know a little or I may think I know a little, but in reality, it's their job to know more. And so there's no threat there if they do, right? I guess that would be the answer to that question if I, I, yeah. I love the answer. you, you, I almost felt like I was speaking in your shoes. Yeah. Yeah. Transparency and openness and you know, they're all human rights. If they make a mistake, it's okay. Let's just learn from it. Let's not keep doing the same thing. Yep, exactly. Yeah. And I mean, the team's really good about that. We hold each other accountable. I mean, I really couldn't do it without them. It's, know, this team has grown, grown very organically. People really see the vision. They want to be a part of it and they're okay with it being my vision. And they, they trust and appreciate and respect my vision. But then I also respect it as, you know, their adopted baby as well. Right. Like It's not my vision to me, it's our vision now. And so let's figure out how to make it work. And I think that that works really well for us. Awesome. Well, to lighten things up, here's I know you just said you don't like to travel or you don't look forward to it, but if you are going just for fun and you're getting on a plane tomorrow, what is your first place you think of to go to? Italy. I love Italy. I'm gonna be there in three weeks. See you there, come on. man. Yeah, I man I cannot wait to take my wife back to Italy like it is so nice there. It's just it was the most peaceful place. I absolutely love it there. yeah, Italy 100 % Yeah, I'm with you. Do you have kids? I do, yeah, I have seven kids. How many? Okay. How old's the oldest? So Jada is 15. And then it goes, it's kind of just in order stair stepping 14, 13, 12, 11, 11. And then we have a four year old. Yeah. Are you playing with a four -year -old? Video games. yeah, he's a beast like he's he's He's really he's actually really good. I mean, he's beaten Mario Odyssey when he was like two years old Yeah, he's a beast. They're all they're all really talented I mean, they don't all enjoy video games at the same level but Mason actually just joined the league. So he's now a professional gamer he got drafted to the blaze so So he's playing he's playing with them and he's been I mean he's been Laban, he's you know, he's been practicing a lot. I'm really proud of You know the fact that he's taking it seriously and he's I'm trying to teach him how to be a professional and you know set it up because it's more than just about the game, know, it's there's so much more to it so I'm trying my best, know to teach him as much as I can with the limited time I have but But no, it's it's you know, they they it was created for them. Like we legitimately built this out for them They you know, they were at that, at the age of five years ago. know, Jade is 10 years old at the time and, you know, they all really enjoyed playing video games with me. and so it was like, let's build like an arcade, like a family fun arcade where other people can take their kids, you know, and being in real estate, it's like, okay, well, who's our competition and what do we need to look at? And I'm looking at positioning and, know, and then that turned into, okay, we need to create something that's going to draw people in to, to, to come, come back, right? Cause they can come once, but that doesn't do any good. they don't come back and so we created the league and it's gone from there. That's awesome. Just one little idea to the next big league. That's incredible. So if you could have dinner with a person past or present who pops in mind? They know why. Yeah, for sure. Like he's like the goat to me. I mean, I don't watch UFC at all. Like, it's just not my thing. But I've done, I've researched him so much just because like when I was creating this league, I felt, I felt this like synergy on what he was saying and how he felt and how he built it. I mean, he's taken something that like you have boxing and wrestling and jujitsu, all these different, you know, styles of fighting and you combine them all and you just, you say, Hey, you know, Duke it out, who's the best, right? And all of those different styles of fighting didn't need him. The community didn't need him or didn't want him, right? Like it wasn't like there was huge viewership for it or a need for it. It was something that was like very much a want and he had to trailblaze and convince people of its importance. And I feel like I'm doing the same. you know, the gaming community and the different genres of gaming, fighting, shooting, sports. They don't necessarily need this combination, but it's so much better and it's so much more entertaining and it grabs so much more of an audience that it will improve the greater landscape of a thing about what UFC did for Jiu -Jitsu, what it did for boxing, what it did for wrestling, what it did for all of these different fighting styles. I think we do the same for gaming. It's just not recognized yet and it will be. That's awesome. Well, you might have to come out to Vegas to meet with them. So when you do, let me know. Yeah, I'm in Vegas. man, I don't need a reason to come back to Vegas. man. Yeah. All right. Cool. Anything else you want to share before I wrap this up? No, yeah, check us out this week every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, every single week. So tune in. We're at uelesports .com. We actually stream to the website too, so you can just tune in right there. Awesome. Titus, thank you so much for sharing your insights and experiences with us today. Your journey from sales to CEO is truly inspiring and your vision for UEL is shaping the future of eSports in remarkable ways. For our listeners who want to stay connected with Titus and UEL, be sure to visit their website at uelesports .com and follow them on Twitter and Instagram at UEL Esports. Thanks again, Titus. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.