Founded in 2015, G2 Esports is one of the most recognisable brands in esports.
G2 currently boast teams in eight separate esports, who have collectively secured over 100 first-place finishes, including League of Legends, Apex Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, Rocket League, Fortnite, Halo Infinite and sim racing.
The esports organisation, which was co-founded by former League of Legends player Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez, and veteran esports entrepreneur and investor Jens Hilgers in 2015, also work with high-profile partners including BMW, Logitech, Red Bull, Adidas, Seasonic, Phillips, Ralph Lauren, Spotify, Mastercard and more.
G2 has a loyal community, known as the G2 Army, which has culminated in an Instagram following of 1.3 million, Twitter followers in excess of 1.2 million and over 123 million video views on YouTube.
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So far in 2022, G2 has already been featured in an esports documentary series called 'Unfold', produced by the Emmy award-winning Red Bull Media House, and has also launched its own record label, releasing its first song, an epic power metal track 'Our Way', which features vocals from Founder and CEO Carlos ‘Ocelote’ Rodriguez.
Following the release of the documentary and their own record label, the Mirror sat down (virtually) with co-founder Rodriguez, to discuss his reasons for founding an esports organisation, the growth of the esports industry and what the future holds for G2.
"Either I'm going to become a billionaire out of this, or I'm going bankrupt, that's literally what I told myself. And I think we're closer to the billion than to bankruptcy, so I'm happy," Said G2 Esports co-founder and CEO Carlos ‘Ocelote’ Rodriguez.
"Honestly, I'm just very happy and fortunate to have built and have, actually, I think most importantly, the culture of the company.
"Built a culture that I'm very, very happy to work in, that people are happy to work in.
"And it's a very desirable culture to want to be a part of it, whether you're a staff member or a player, and it just something that we've built something that just is larger than us, you know, so I'm just always really happy."
But where did the idea to found his own esports organisation come from? Well, as Rodriguez explains, it all started in the shower.
"I feel like when you're number one at something, and I was the number one player at some point in different games. There's nothing else in your brain other than that one thing.
"And you know, I believe it's the showers that give it away.
"If you want to be the number one and you're not thinking about your job in the shower, chances are, you're not the number one anymore, or you're about to be not the number one anymore in the future.
"So yeah, I think the showers gave it away for me. I was no longer dreaming about raising trophies myself, but I was dreaming about creating something that outlasts my career, making people laugh, entertaining them, having groups of people that I put together lift trophies. Instead, I was dreaming about different things, you know.
"I started the transition to quit the game, quit as a professional, quit my career as a player and start a new life as the manager, the CEO of an organisation like ours, I had no idea.
"I had no idea what where to start, I had no idea or anything. I didn't understand how companies work. I didn't understand ownership.
"When you get investors into your company. I didn't understand anything, how to hire someone, I never had a job. I only played video games. And I learned to relate to people, I learned to win and learn to make my sponsors happy. That's what I learned.
Rodriguez also talked about the growth of the esports industry in recent years, which hasn't surprised him, and he believes video games will remain the largest entertainment industry for years to come.
"The industry was overhyped by 2020 as a result of people being like, oh my god, there's this industry that's at the 100% still, even with all this pandemic.
"More time spent at home means more time to entertain ourselves with digital online, and video games play a big part in this and watching people play video games play a part in this.
"So of course, numbers went up as a result, and actually it's funny because now that things are coming back to normal slowly, numbers are still up actually relative to even previous year, which is pretty crazy to me.
"So this is a generational phenomenon. And there's no question on whether video games will remain as the largest entertainment industry or not. The answer is 100% yes.
"If there's a video game, and there's competition in it, both video games and esports will thrive.
"When the internet allows for low latency between regions, and things like that, we aren't even anywhere close to mass adoption.
"When that happens, it's ludicrous to think, to not believe, that this is going to be hands down, without a question, the largest entertainment industry with a huge margin.
So, what does the future hold for G2 Esports and Carlos 'ocelote' Rodriguez?
"I think that within the next 10 years, you will see Animated Movies of G2, whether with different IP, maybe the samurai millennial guy, Sammy, who knows, you will see distributed shows in biggest platforms available, maybe animated, maybe played with actors, maybe a combination of both.
"You will see the G2 IP and the characters of the G2 IP at large, playing games or operating games, whatever, you know, maybe single-player games, maybe multiplayer games.
"And whatever schemes we create in those games will have a story, we will make sure they do, a lore.
"At the same time you will we'll continue to be an esports team, our teams will continue to win. We'll continue to make people laugh on socials.
"We'll get to meme ourselves after losing, meme the opponents before playing them and after playing them. And we will continue to have fun with our job.
"And when you look at the company, if you're an investor and not a fan, you're looking at a company and we want to be like okay, that's a media company. That's a 360 media company. The only difference between Disney and G2 is the size.
"You know what's cool, G2, is the first-ever in history, sports team or competitive team, with fantasy aspects in parallel, as part of the same brand.
"In other words, there's never been a competitive organisation that has merged that with an IP that's fully made up.
"And that has it's own tone of voice, it's own characters, it's own lore, it's own story, it's own design, it's own everything.
"And we're going to be the first ones."
‘Our Way’ by G2 is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer. The song will also be available on rhythmic games such as Beat Saber.
You can catch G2 Esports CEO Carlos 'ocelote' Rodriguez in a brand new episode of Emmy Award-winning Red Bull Media House's esports documentary series, Unfold, which gives fans an exclusive insight into his everyday life. Energetic, dedicated and totally unique, the episode delves into what has made Carlos into esports’ greatest entertainer and how he built an esports empire.
G2 is one of the world’s leading entertainment and esports brands. G2 was co-founded in 2015 by legendary League of Legends player-turned-team owner, Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez, and veteran esports entrepreneur and investor, Jens Hilgers.
More information is available at: https://g2esports.com
