45. Standing with Ukraine

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Welcome to the meta woman podcast we address the

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issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

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development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

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internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

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female talent and business executives operating in the

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

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

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welcome to the metal woman podcast part of the holodeck

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

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

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returning listeners. Thank you so much for listening week after

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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that was happening there. Her whole business has changed her

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

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

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

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from Kyiv main cast is an esports organization based out

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of Ukraine where they operate live broadcasts, tournaments and

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create original content through their talents and influencers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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It is development and design, social media and public

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

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managing the creation of a new and powerful experience. Then

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when esports fans are watching tournaments, the visual part of

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

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

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

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

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

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manager to build in house development department, I jumped

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in and started working in a gaming.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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previously about you moving offices to Poland and then

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

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forward professionally? And with your work during this time?

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Yeah, surely their Russian invasion was a shock and huge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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emotional

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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focused and cold

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

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

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

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

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

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

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conditions and mental state, and even perform better racing,

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

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fully for two languages, and concentrate and focus on

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Ukrainian broadcasts from the other side, we as Ukrainian and

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

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

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

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

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organized our own fundraiser, we tried to provide medicine and

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

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

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and Ukrainian army, several our employees were enlisted to the

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

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they need it. And my role in

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

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hours in my phone, just connecting people and try to

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find,

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trying to find money trying to find all staff that

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

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

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

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think I really thankful for everyone who donate and who

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

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

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

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question a bit, because one thing that you mentioned was

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that throughout the adjustment period of learning how to keep a

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clear mind and keep yourself balanced while you're dealing

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with so much uncertainty and tragedy. Sadness is that you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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broadcasts for news or destroy

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

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

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

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

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numbers. The Russian community is simply bigger because of the

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population size, our media outreach, and the amount of

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

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

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

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so we can see that the quantity of viewers grows exponentially

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

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have you records on Ukrainian Ukrainian broadcasts, we

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understand that building the community and developing it will

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

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

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to build

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this like strong, powerful Ukrainian community, and we hope

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

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our work now concentrated focused on

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

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

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

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

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

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building your Ukrainian community, you have a big

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

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

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

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all the tournaments, from different tournament providers,

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

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partnership with the theater with Electronic Arts, and was

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

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than five years. The official like partner on the

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International, we try to like create the experience for

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

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tournaments, and

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

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community and to engage viewers not just watching tournaments,

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but interact with broadcasts to interact with the game in my

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department especially we try to figure out new ways of engaging

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and interaction from tournament to tournament is always a

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challenge to create something new, we like to use new

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technology. Yeah, to use new methods

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and mechanics of engagement. There's the main information

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

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

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

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

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additional information about the game and about teams, players.

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And we try to try to visualize it

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

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

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flat but now we change the technology and use like full

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

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

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new methods of visualization.

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New technologies AR technologies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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use some some new methods.

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And like technologies for the broadcast that is used for

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gaming, and we even communicate with Engine developers to do

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some updates.

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

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

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you also work with product developers and fan engagement

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

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

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

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methods. And we are really passionate about creating the

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

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

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out of the box and look at broadcast from the global

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perspective not limited by the broadcast and gaming standards.

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

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

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

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create some new experience. And then you new methods of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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nonstop iterations. So if provements My main goal is to

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like coordinate all all this work and all this. implement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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esports in gaming? Yeah, I think we find

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From the culture of the US,

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

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

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

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be a part of the team.

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

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

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

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

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

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hosts, commentator, interviewers or manager. And people sometimes

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

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

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

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

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because you're a good professional, not just your

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

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

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

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

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

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

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company, everyone tried to support and we have a good

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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industry and community has always been predominantly the

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

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woman hugely influenced trend in the industry and creates

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countless opportunity for the gaming companies, as gamers,

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developers and media, media workers and management workers,

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

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

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stopped in your generation of women, following their passion

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

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something very important to be actively thinking about how are

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

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

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

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industry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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skills that needed to in the gaming industry, women like

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

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

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

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

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good professional. Other leadership's needs to not be

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

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

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industry Yes, upgrade the industry. Sorry. One last

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

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

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

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many more voices that are loud thanks to social media and

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

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positions, getting other minority folks into positions

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

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

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

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excited about the future of gaming metaphors, as it was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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something unique.

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

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through the gaming and allowing them to engage in the same

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

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totally, totally new experience for gamers and for companies and

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

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

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

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summarize our conversation before we get into the last

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segment we started with a discussion on how main cast was

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

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able to work for

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

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

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Once everyone was safe, tournaments and production

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resumed, and working conditions and mental state were actually

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

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like everyone needed a bit of a distraction and that keeping

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

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created a foundation and a fundraiser to provide slit

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

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will absolutely provide any links that we can to that so

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

Unknown: 00:30:46

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

Unknown: 00:30:50

able to refocus on the Ukrainian community and developing

Unknown: 00:30:56

Ukrainian productions. viewership has grown

Unknown: 00:30:59

exponentially since that refocus main cast itself is a studio

Unknown: 00:31:03

that covers tournaments from different providers, has

Unknown: 00:31:07

partnerships with ESL EA and more focuses on having

Unknown: 00:31:11

interactive broadcasts to engage viewers, and showing game data

Unknown: 00:31:17

and statistics during the match to give fans additional

Unknown: 00:31:21

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

Unknown: 00:31:26

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

Unknown: 00:31:31

increase engagement with the viewer. When it comes to women

Unknown: 00:31:34

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

Unknown: 00:31:38

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

Unknown: 00:31:43

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

Unknown: 00:31:47

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

Unknown: 00:31:52

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

Unknown: 00:31:56

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

Unknown: 00:32:01

in especially into leadership positions and boards. And in

Unknown: 00:32:05

order to do that Ellaria recommends taking a chance on

Unknown: 00:32:09

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

Unknown: 00:32:14

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

Unknown: 00:32:17

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

Unknown: 00:32:21

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

Unknown: 00:32:26

argue that main cast is already getting into the metaverse with

Unknown: 00:32:31

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

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

Unknown: 00:32:40

did it.

Unknown: 00:32:42

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

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

Unknown: 00:32:51

career and think about your trajectory and the changes. So

Unknown: 00:32:55

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

Unknown: 00:32:59

getting into the gaming industry and being successful? As I

Unknown: 00:33:04

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

Unknown: 00:33:07

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

Unknown: 00:33:13

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

Unknown: 00:33:18

youngest self to be passionate and follow your passion no

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matter what barriers stand

Unknown: 00:33:28

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

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

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

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

Unknown: 00:33:50

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

Unknown: 00:33:55

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

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

Unknown: 00:34:10

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

Unknown: 00:34:15

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

Unknown: 00:34:22

social media channels do you want everyone to know about?

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

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just

Unknown: 00:34:35

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

Unknown: 00:34:41

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

Unknown: 00:34:47

Dota two hours so

Unknown: 00:34:50

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

Unknown: 00:34:56

social media pages to an Instagram of course yes, my

Unknown: 00:35:00

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

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so much for coming on for sharing about what everyone what

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

Unknown: 00:35:12

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

Unknown: 00:35:16

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

Unknown: 00:35:19

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

Unknown: 00:35:23

Be sure to check out other holodeck media podcasts,

Unknown: 00:35:26

including meta business and business esports. I'm on

Unknown: 00:35:30

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

Unknown: 00:35:34

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

Unknown: 00:35:37

Wednesday afternoons on the business of esports live after

Unknown: 00:35:41

show and you can catch this podcast in your feed every week.

Unknown: 00:35:44

We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us here on meta

Unknown: 00:35:47

woman. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get

Unknown: 00:35:50

your podcasts leave a five star review and tell your friends

Unknown: 00:35:53

family and colleagues all about us. Also, make sure to follow

Unknown: 00:35:57

meta TV on all socials to get more of the best Metaverse

Unknown: 00:36:00

content anywhere. Tune in every week for another episode of