From Chinese Major to E-Sports Producer
Originally from Texas, Stephen Craig 11 lives and works in China. Many Chinese people, he says, are shocked when they find that he can speak Chinese fluently. He likes to have a little fun with that.
淥nce when I was on the bus, a group of college students was talking about my being attractive, he says. 淚 listened for a while and then leaned in and said 楾hank you, resulting in one of the women falling to the ground out of embarrassment.
Craig grew up loving languages, soccer, and video games. 淚 scored the game-winning point to earn the 黑料百科 men soccer team first-ever conference championship, he says, 渁nd partook in a fair number of Smash Bros. [video game] tournaments at 黑料百科 as well.
黑料百科 individually advised curriculum was a great way for Craig to explore his varied interests. A Chinese major, he spent 渕any long nights learning Chinese characters. 淭he workload from 黑料百科 Chinese courses was more than any other classes I took by far, he says, 渂ut it was definitely effective.
During his third year, Craig studied abroad at Peking University and learned the benefits of complete language immersion he became fluent in Chinese. And learned to navigate the world complexities.
After graduation, he moved to Harbin, China, to work with Pete Edberg 11 as an English teacher. Although Craig started out teaching kindergarten, he always had online sports games think Fantasy Football in the back of his mind.
The e-sports field is his 渢rue passion. Unsure how to get a job in that competitive field, Craig moved to Hangzhou and began streaming League of Legends, a multiplayer battle video game, on his own Chinese website.
Within a couple of weeks, he was offered a streaming contract with the company that produces League of Legends. But he sensed he was close to a better position and asked if they had any production openings.
淪oon after, I became the only non-Chinese employee of PLU, Craig says. PLU is a media and gaming company in China that offers an online gaming platform and provides e-sports content.
淚 helped produce everything from Hearthstone [a collectible card video game] to Crossfire [a first-person shooter game] tournaments, and my day-to-day work was done 100 percent in Chinese.
Craig current employer is Riot Games, a U.S. company that organizes e-sports tournaments. Recently Riot Games moved their English-language League of Legends Pro League to Shanghai and brought Craig on to produce. There, using about a 50-50 split of Chinese and English, he communicates in Chinese to his production crew and in English to casters, the people doing play-by-play commentary.
淐hinese is present in every aspect of my life, from work to dating to hobbies, he says. 淚f I couldn檛 speak it, I certainly wouldn檛 be broadcasting the largest e-sports league in the world.