Today's episode is incredibly important. Valeriia Voronova, the Media Director of Maincast, joins the show. Maincast is an esports organization based out of Ukraine, where they operate Live Broadcasts, Tournaments, and create original content through their talents and influencers. The war in Ukraine has heavily impacted Valeriia's life, business, and the esports scene, and we discuss the impacts of that. Valeriia explains what the esports scene is like in Eastern Europe, how more women can be involved in the industry, and more.

Episode Resources

https://www.maincast.com/ 

https://www.gamereactor.eu/esl-and-maincast-has-extended-their-media-deal-for-four-more-years/ 

Welcome to the meta woman podcast we address the

issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

female talent and business executives operating in the

gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey the

boss POS, the metal woman podcast starts now. Hello, and

welcome to the metal woman podcast part of the holodeck

media Podcast Network. I'm your host, Lindsay the boss POS. And

from struggle to success. We're covering it all. To our

returning listeners. Thank you so much for listening week after

week supporting the show it means a lot. And for all the new

listeners out there, welcome. I hope you enjoy and I hope you'll

come back next week. Today's guest is very special as she

joins us to not only discuss gaming, but some world news. We

don't typically cover global affairs on the show. But I think

we can all agree that what is happening to the people of

Ukraine is horrific and unjust. I'm honored to have a guest

today that was forced to live through the crisis. And the war

that was happening there. Her whole business has changed her

whole life has changed. And she's joining me today to talk

about that. And to talk about what she does in gaming. Valerie

of arnova is the media director of main cast. She joins me today

from Kyiv main cast is an esports organization based out

of Ukraine where they operate live broadcasts, tournaments and

create original content through their talents and influencers.

Valerie, welcome to the show. Tell me a little bit about

yourself and your background. Hyland, Sam, thanks for having

me today. And I, for me, it's a big honor to be a part of your

podcast. And I think you do a great job for the woman

community. And as y'all dimension, I'm the media

director of main cast, and I'm in charge of four departments.

It is development and design, social media and public

relationship. And I have a team of 24 to five people, I'm

managing the creation of a new and powerful experience. Then

when esports fans are watching tournaments, the visual part of

the broadcast and our main products, it is overlay system.

And other parts of my job is to building is building community

around main cast. If you talk about my background, back in the

days, I worked in a couple of media agencies as project

manager, and then a simile. So when main cast was looking for a

manager to build in house development department, I jumped

in and started working in a gaming.

Yeah. So this is like short information about my background.

Everyone I meet in gaming kind of has a different entry point

into it, too. So that makes sense. I want to first thank you

for coming on and discussing your work. During such a tough

time I know for Ukrainians, I can't even begin to understand

what you all are going through. But you certainly have my full

sympathy and support. With that being said, we have talked a bit

previously about you moving offices to Poland and then

moving back to Kyiv. How have you been able to continue moving

forward professionally? And with your work during this time?

Yeah, surely their Russian invasion was a shock and huge

strategy follow us. And the first hours and days, it was

total horrible situation. And I was in Kyiv when it started my

colleague, he called me at 430 I think Am and that

the war had begun. I woke up just to grab my emergency

suitcase case. Went like ran into my car and with my

colleague and his family. We went to the western part of

Ukraine and it was like 18 hours in a road instead of usual six

because there was no foil at all, and there was huge traffic

jams and problems on the road. So it was like, really for me

emotional

The devastating the first weeks all of our like management, we

tried to protect our team. And it was the main goal for us and

we communicate 24 hours with all members just figure out how to

recreate people how to make sure that everyone is alive and safe.

And we try to figure out how to renew our work and to help

everyone. So it was a really challenging time for me and for

for my team. And in that time, I realized how I need to be

focused and cold

blooded. And when you need to make this fast an important

decision. As soon as we made sure that everyone is safe. We

started bit by bit, we managed to renew our work, broadcast of

the tournaments. And of course, our productivity was like half

of capacity. And we needed like two or maybe even three months

to return our like, regular regime, we improved our working

conditions and mental state, and even perform better racing,

looking at my team and like all company stuff. And now we work

fully for two languages, and concentrate and focus on

Ukrainian broadcasts from the other side, we as Ukrainian and

as a big esports community figure out that we had a huge

amount of messages in our direct from our community, yes, from

our users and viewers, who asked for a help. And we, from the

first day of the war, we decided to create our own foundation and

organized our own fundraiser, we tried to provide medicine and

gear and provision for everyone who needed and for the army, and

we couldn't stand aside Yes, for from supporting our community,

and Ukrainian army, several our employees were enlisted to the

armed forces. So obviously, we tried to provide them everything

they need it. And my role in

this initiative was like a coordinator. And I was like 24

hours in my phone, just connecting people and try to

find,

trying to find money trying to find all staff that

someone needed. So it was really nervous and challenging time for

me and for my team. And I even like, burn out for a couple of

days after like, this 24 hour regime. After three weeks, I

think I really thankful for everyone who donate and who

helped us. And we still support our army and people and still

try to do our best in this field. Well, thank you so much

for sharing all of that. I want to kind of lead into the next

question a bit, because one thing that you mentioned was

that throughout the adjustment period of learning how to keep a

clear mind and keep yourself balanced while you're dealing

with so much uncertainty and tragedy. Sadness is that you

were able to work more. Yeah. And so we needed to work more.

But one thing I wondered too, is if gaming and organizations like

main cast have been a way to unite people in the Ukrainian

community just to build, I don't know, support and community

during a time when you might need it even more. So how have

you seen your community change or grow in the last six months?

Are you seeing more support? Are people coming to beam cast and

broadcasts for news or destroy

reactions or something different than, you know, the war? Like,

what feedback have you gotten from your community? It was hard

because our community was, like mostly Russian. And it was the

massive challenge, for sure. For us, mostly because of the

numbers. The Russian community is simply bigger because of the

population size, our media outreach, and the amount of

viewers took a hit. Of course, despite of the situation, we've

decided to focused on Ukrainian community and to do our best and

to develop Ukrainian broadcast. So now after the several months,

so we can see that the quantity of viewers grows exponentially

from tournament to tournament, and we see the good trend. We

have you records on Ukrainian Ukrainian broadcasts, we

understand that building the community and developing it will

need some time, we're definitely ready to put our best effort

into it. And we think it is important for us as Ukrainians

to build

this like strong, powerful Ukrainian community, and we hope

it will be like replan. So we try to do what we can. And all

our work now concentrated focused on

on this field. Yes, well, and let's talk about what you

actually do at Main cast so that people can follow it. And you

are one of the largest esports provider in Europe, and you have

a huge market. In Eastern Europe. I know you said now,

especially since you're focusing on Ukrainian or on Ukraine and

building your Ukrainian community, you have a big

partnership with ESL to bring CSGO to your area. So what are

you doing to engage fans and to build and to grow? If you had to

summarize what does main cast do, we asked to do, and we cover

all the tournaments, from different tournament providers,

not only yourself, but PGL blast last year, we have a strong

partnership with the theater with Electronic Arts, and was

wealth. And we worked in for a while for, I think about more

than five years. The official like partner on the

International, we try to like create the experience for

viewers, the esport experience, yes, to cover all the

tournaments, and

all the popular games in our area. And we try to build

community and to engage viewers not just watching tournaments,

but interact with broadcasts to interact with the game in my

department especially we try to figure out new ways of engaging

and interaction from tournament to tournament is always a

challenge to create something new, we like to use new

technology. Yeah, to use new methods

and mechanics of engagement. There's the main information

about cast. Yes, and one thing that we talked about before and

you have already mentioned this, but I know that a big part of it

is using data and overlays to engage fans. So can you talk

about that aspect a little bit, reuse game data to show like

additional information about the game and about teams, players.

And we try to try to visualize it

in the best way, if like a couple of years before

all the overlays and brought in broadcast was like to 2d like

flat but now we change the technology and use like full

environment 3d environment using Unreal Engine. It is totally new

for gaming and for broadcast and it's like challenging us to find

new methods of visualization.

New technologies AR technologies

and using the real time data and the real time interaction with

viewers. That's so cool. The 3d stuff is very new still. So

that's neat. And the biggest problem with that it is not

popular for broadcast at all. It's like it's more about

gaming. And that's why for us, it's like constant r&d process.

So my team like half of the time, just to figure out how to

use some some new methods.

And like technologies for the broadcast that is used for

gaming, and we even communicate with Engine developers to do

some updates.

In releases for for our needs. That's so cool. What do you like

about product design and your role? I know you do media, but

you also work with product developers and fan engagement

teams. So what do you like about that, as I mentioned before,

the product for me and for for our team, Unreal Engine based

system, we always try yes to do to find new visual effects and

methods. And we are really passionate about creating the

new experience and tend to push limits. To create something new

for the industry, the most important for our job is to go

out of the box and look at broadcast from the global

perspective not limited by the broadcast and gaming standards.

That is the main vector and goal in like product design for our

team is like, as I said, it's a constant r&d process. So we just

research and try to figure out how we can use it and how we can

create some new experience. And then you new methods of

visualization. What do you, Valerie? Yeah, like about it, or

like about, I guess, r&d and product design? What are some of

your favorite parts of your job, cause Dev has seen customer

development, we have some focus groups and just chatting a lot

and research trying to find a new insights, how to create this

upgrade experience and upgrade to our data in broadcast. So my

main role as a leader, and the manager is to coordinate my team

and to create a growth strategy and to optimize all the process.

Because when you scale when my like my team scale, all the

time, we need always to do some improvements. And it's like,

nonstop iterations. So if provements My main goal is to

like coordinate all all this work and all this. implement

this, like global strategy of the company. I always say that

in in gaming, everyone is kept on their toes. They have to be

ready to go all the time. So it sounds like yeah, that too. Yes.

Yeah, it's a really fast fear of business. And everything can

change tomorrow, and you need to be ready to pivot and to, to

change your strategy. Yeah. It's a very challenging, but we are

passionate about it. And we love this rhythm. And I think it's

driving us to do to do our best. Yeah, it's always more and more.

But it's, it's good. You're right. It keeps everything new.

And you're always learning. Yeah. So it can be it can be

fun, nonstop. r&d is I guess the the idea of the moment switching

topics a little bit. I want to chat about getting more women

into esports. In the US, we have challenges getting women into

roles for all kinds of reasons. We explore that a lot in this

show. What is the culture like for you in Eastern Europe, or

just in Europe in general? What is it like to be a woman in in

esports in gaming? Yeah, I think we find

From the culture of the US,

and but we are on the way. Yeah. And when I started in gaming in

esports, I was the only one a woman in the company. So it was

really, like challenging and hard period for me just used to

be a part of the team.

Yes. But now, like we have about 30% of the staff are women, I

think I'm the one who create this culture in our company.

Yeah, because I was the first one. Yeah. But in general, I

think like, if we talk about on camera side, they're still

difficult for women to to prove themselves as equal good, like

hosts, commentator, interviewers or manager. And people sometimes

may just afraid of getting into esports. Because it's does

sounds frightening, in a way, but once you get in everyone is

equal here, and you just have to do a good job. That's all. So

now the situation has changed. And you can be on the top just

because you're a good professional, not just your

gender. So you mentioned this already. But you are a woman on

a male dominated team, how has that team supported you? And how

have you helped your team grow? Well, in terms of work, I'm

actually the one who support others. Yes. Because in my

performance, I can often be ahead of my colleague. But then

on the human side, I think it's all great in, especially in our

company, everyone tried to support and we have a good

atmosphere inside the team. Some of my colleagues are my long

time friends now, after like, I'm six years in industry.

That's why I always have like, a support, and I'm happy to give

it back me as like, head of department, I try to create this

atmosphere where everyone is equal, no matter your gender, or

your age. And we never were like, we talk like equal, and we

try to create this good atmosphere inside. So I will try

to support everyone. And even in my team, I have, like, I think

even 40% of female now. That's so fun. One thing I've learned

from doing this show is that when you hire one woman, they

tend to recruit other women. Oh, that makes sense.

So we have seen the industry grow and become more inclusive.

A lot of the feedback I get doing this show is that things

are getting better, but it's just much more slowly, then

people expect. So why do you think it's important to get more

women into gaming to pick up the speed a little? Yeah, the gaming

industry and community has always been predominantly the

male male space. Yeah. But now the reality is different. And

woman hugely influenced trend in the industry and creates

countless opportunity for the gaming companies, as gamers,

developers and media, media workers and management workers,

women esports League have a period. So I think it's a

growing Yeah, growing trend now. And all the stereotypes, haven't

stopped in your generation of women, following their passion

and doing important job in the industry. I think that it's

something very important to be actively thinking about how are

we promoting woman and finding talents in terms of gender. I

think that as more women women are in leadership position, and

more boards, it's going to boost everyone's success and to boost

industry.

But in general, the pie will just get bigger for everyone.

Don't be afraid. Yes, I couldn't agree more. One question. This

is a little bit on the spot. But you as you are head of a

department, what recommendations do you have? Or what advice do

you have for other people who are in leadership to get more

women into their companies? Yeah. Don't be afraid to hire

and give a chance for women. I think we have strong, like soft

skills that needed to in the gaming industry, women like

professionals on high level now, and I see you that a lot of in

even in a lot of companies now, like on a sea level, there is a

lot of women. Yes. And I think it's a big trend and

like, community, realized that we can be a good manager and a

good professional. Other leadership's needs to not be

afraid because it's like, like a stereotype that gaming. It's all

about men. Women understand gaming, and can give upscale the

industry Yes, upgrade the industry. Sorry. One last

question, because I like to talk about the metaverse on this

show, because it is kind of an opportunity to start fresher. I

guess we have so many more types of people building it and so

many more voices that are loud thanks to social media and

changes. So we talked about, you know, getting women into

positions, getting other minority folks into positions

that kind of reminds me of building the metaverse, right,

where everyone can play and work how they want. So are you

thinking about the metaverse at all? And if so, what makes you

excited about the future of gaming metaphors, as it was

presented by a meta has a huge impact, yes, and the opportunity

for the gaming industry. And before the war, we plan to

create esports meters and be the first who will have such product

in esports. Now we frozen pros to this project. But I still

think it will bring a totally new level of experience and a

lot of new monetization models for the industry. However, I

still feel it will take a few more years before we can realize

at least a fraction of its potential as we can see even in

meta they have some troubles. Yes, in on this field. So I

think it's a big step in gaming, but we need time, but because of

some companies that ruined the reputation of mentors. Yes. Just

trying to like Bazemore to get like some relevance and to get

some more money from this Hype. Hype team. Yeah.

Now like the reputations really not really, really good. Yeah.

But I we hope that Metaverse is bigger than NFT and bigger than

some online concerts. And it's not about like selling people

something unique.

It's about connection people. So through the media and devices

through the gaming and allowing them to engage in the same

in the same activities in the in the same space. So it's like

totally, totally new experience for gamers and for companies and

for media market. It's like great to watching sign

tournaments, in Chi Chi's go in meters. I hope it will be in the

future. Well, I couldn't agree more. I am going to quickly

summarize our conversation before we get into the last

segment we started with a discussion on how main cast was

able to AMG you how, how you and how main cast as a whole were

able to work for

forced to adapt because of the war, how you first protected the

team and how you had to remain clear headed to make decisions.

Once everyone was safe, tournaments and production

resumed, and working conditions and mental state were actually

kept both in very good spirits just because I think it sounded

like everyone needed a bit of a distraction and that keeping

that going was important. And in the midst of all this main cast

created a foundation and a fundraiser to provide slit

supplies for the Ukrainian people in army who needed it, we

will absolutely provide any links that we can to that so

that folks can support it before the war, the main cast community

was mostly Russian. But since then, you main cast has been

able to refocus on the Ukrainian community and developing

Ukrainian productions. viewership has grown

exponentially since that refocus main cast itself is a studio

that covers tournaments from different providers, has

partnerships with ESL EA and more focuses on having

interactive broadcasts to engage viewers, and showing game data

and statistics during the match to give fans additional

information. And that data and statistics isn't just static, it

can have AR and VR elements and overlays and is tailored to

increase engagement with the viewer. When it comes to women

in esports. And gaming, there's a long way to go on the

production side or behind, or I guess in front of a camera. It's

difficult to get women to the same level as men. But once a

woman is in it becomes more equal. Good work is recognized

as good work. Women have a much bigger say in the industry now

than a couple years ago. But it's important to get more women

in especially into leadership positions and boards. And in

order to do that Ellaria recommends taking a chance on

women in leadership. When it comes to the metaverse, it's a

totally new experience for gamers and companies. It's going

to take a couple of years to build out. There have been some

bad actors. Hopefully we can get more good actors. And I would

argue that main cast is already getting into the metaverse with

VR and AR overlays. So don't I wouldn't say that any projects

have been frozen or put on hold. You're there. You're there, you

did it.

For the last segment, this is what I do with every guest that

comes on the show. This is just a chance to look back on your

career and think about your trajectory and the changes. So

what is one thing you would like to tell your younger self about

getting into the gaming industry and being successful? As I

mentioned before, when I come to the gaming industry, I was the

only one women in the company and it was really challenging to

be an equal part of the team. And I would like to tell my

youngest self to be passionate and follow your passion no

matter what barriers stand

in your way. Only if you have a big goal and a huge interest,

you can reach the top. So go follow your passion. I think

this is the main in gaming because gaming it's still more

about hobby and about your lifestyle. I don't know maybe in

us the different situation but in Ukraine, like in our company,

almost everyone love gaming and love for esports that's why we

tend to create something big and try to do to do best. Because,

like we it's like our passion. Yes. Well, I love that. Where

can people find you or follow you or follow main cast or what

social media channels do you want everyone to know about?

Tick tock Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, so you to twitch so

just

try to find main cast and there's a lot of different pages

for the fans of gaming. In general. For Kai's go fans for

Dota two hours so

you can find what fit for you. Yeah, and we have English pages,

social media pages to an Instagram of course yes, my

My favorite is probably actually my favorite. But thank you so,

so much for coming on for sharing about what everyone what

you have been going through what everyone has been going through.

I'm, I'm honored to have you talk about all of that. So thank

you. For all the listeners out there. Don't forget to leave

five star ratings and reviews and helps people find the show.

Be sure to check out other holodeck media podcasts,

including meta business and business esports. I'm on

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn at Lindsey poss haven't made it

on to tick tock yet. We'll get there. You can catch me

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