The Esports Roundtable: Romain Bigeard, OpTic Gaming

24 January 2018

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Romain Bigeard, OpTic Gaming

In the latest episode of esports podcast The Esports Roundtable, host Joe Hills talks to Romain Bigeard, the General Manager of League of Legends for OpTic Gaming about his history in esports and his recent move Europe to the States. 

In a lengthy discussion, Bigeard opens up on several topics including his approach to team management, the esports ecosystem and his journey to exactly where he is today. Currently, Bigeard is in charge of the OpTic League of Legends team in their first season in the League of Legends Championship Series.

The NA LCS has moved this season towards a franchised system and as a result, the teams in the league have dramatically changed since last year. Out have gone the likes of fan-favourite Immortals and Team Dignitas, whilst OpTic and the Golden State Warriors are some of the new additions to the fray.

Join the tranquil French tones of Romain as he takes Joe on a journey from his continued swapping of a Bachelors through to experience at Activision, Razer and Unicorns of Love. His longest stint was at the Unicorns of Love, having started back in May 2015 but October saw him take the leap and head over to Los Angeles where he has been responsible for creating and supervising the esports juggernauts entrance to the world’s largest esport.

https://audioboom.com/posts/6612872-ert-21-team-environments-part-1-romain-bigeard-optic-lol

On his decision to join OpTic, and his move over from Unicorns, Romain had this to say: “Working for Unicorns of Love was one of the best jobs in the world because you could do whatever you wanted. Jos gave me 100% trust to run all marketing and I had an amazing relationship with Sheepy and did not plan to leave. One day, I got a call from Chris Chaney and he explained to me that they were planning to buy a LoL slot for 2018. I had no idea who Optic were, they are most known for Call of Duty and that isn’t the best esport games (shots fired).

“After some research I saw Optic had a social media following of over 4 million and I was blown away by how they’d put that together via only Call of Duty. It made me think about the scale of the North American market which is 100% English speaking vs a larger audience of EU with over 20 languages: translating content and brand in EU is a lot harder.”

The two discuss everything from veterans in esports, through to scantily-clad appearances on the EU LCS stage to exactly what’s happening now. It’s a cracking listen. 

Joe Hills, LFG and The Esports Roundtable

Discussing The Esports Roundtable more generally, Joe Hills told Esports Insider: ‘We’ve always wanted to promote transparency and insight in the industry: not just for fans and those who already work here but for sports and non industry brands too. Romain is a fantastic example of a non-stereotypical esports fanatic from his philosophy to his management style”

Hills is the Founder of Looking for Group, an esports executive recruitment company and has worked to achieve placements for many high profile individuals in the burgeoning esports industry.