The love and pursuit of video games landed Ovilee May (BFA/News and Doc ’18) her current role as the sole Broadcast Interviewer with one of the biggest eSports leagues in the world, League of Legends. “I’ve been playing video games since I could hold a controller at like 3 years old,” says May. She still plays for hours on end on the same game she works for.

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It wasn’t an easy route to take, by any means. May would put in the time to create jobs for herself while in high school, that would benefit small gaming competitions. These jobs would range from coordinating, event planning, tech support, and marketing. She would also start creating her own content through the online platform Twitch and post videos to YouTube.

May’s freshman year of college started with a drive to build her own club for gamers which she established within the first week. She took the foundation of other clubs in order to build hers, not having previous knowledge of the process, and had it opened for the second week of school. “Usually it’s a little bit harder for gamers and us nerds to openly go out and find friends,” says May with a chuckle. She built her own community and created an opportunity to gain experience in graphic design, event management, production, hosting, and administration.

The hard work that May put into her career and education is exactly what she wants to impart on other students. “Don’t just sit idly by waiting for something to fall into your lap, and even if it does, if someone hands you’re your dream job and you have no idea how to handle it or work it, then you’re going to lose that opportunity,” says May. “For people who want to do broadcast work or content creation the first step is just doing it.” student interview

May believes that her future is in eSports and would like to continue her involvement within the community. “I’m just interested in hearing the story lines and hearing how these different teams following different games are kind of developing with the new boom of eSports. Seeing how Rocket League is doing, how Arena of Valor is doing great overseas but how is it going to do in America,” says May.  And she’s not alone in this as the rise of eSports has been tremendous with various sources citing that viewership has jumped hundreds of millions across the globe over the last 5 years.

League of Legends is owned by Riot Games and continues to be a force in eSports. In the months of September and October 2018, they are hosting an international competition known as League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) which will culminate in a World Championship. May is hoping to attend the final championship held in Korea to interview the best players in the world. You can catch May on YouTube as the LCS Split ends this Saturday.