The Next Generation of Fantasy Esports - Mike Vela & JuJu Smith-Schuster on PlayerX
Esports Illustrated had the opportunity to sit down with CEO of World Champion Fantasy, Mike Vela, and NFL superstar JuJu Smith-Schuster who has invested in their new platform, Player X. Player X is a new fantasy platform that features no gambling, and brings a new interactive element to the fantasy sports industry. Currently in beta, Player X has over 10,000 people already on the waitlist, with plans to roll out soon and shake up the industry.
What is Player X? And what separates you from the rest of the fantasy sports market?
Mike - The Player X platform is bringing brand new next generation technology to fantasy sports. Fantasy sports right now in a technology solution is living in the dark ages. Everybody uses a spreadsheet online to manage your fantasy sports teams. But back in 2019, I had a vision of making fantasy sports play like an Xbox game where your player moves on the screen. So we’re building real video game technology and live video feeds to create the most user immersive fantasy sports platform built in esports. We also have a streaming portal, which is for the viewing pleasure of the people that are competing and playing against one another on the platform.
There'll be watch party scenarios. There'll be custom skins and custom avatars built for celebration moments. All those things are encapsulated to make the best fantasy sports solution that the world has ever seen, and that's what we've set out to do and, and that's what we're building right now at World Champion Fantasy and Player X.
Were you involved in the fantasy sports industry before? Or was this just an idea that came, and you knew you had to act upon it?
Mike - I had this dream one night, and I woke up and I thought, why hasn't anybody done this? I can do this. So I immediately started on my way and started doing it. We met so many great people on that journey, obviously one of them being JuJu. JuJu's been instrumental with helping us not only build the platform, but expand the platform and the brand. We're very excited to have him with us along on this journey. And it's been very exciting.
You own your own esports team JuJu, Team Diverge, tell us a little about that
JuJu - Yeah, man. So growing up, I was one of those kids who always wanted to be a part of FaZe Clan. I was able to join being an athlete on FaZe, and that was a huge, huge part of my life.
We started Team Diverge in 2020, the word diverging, you know, to be different. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what colour, whatever you are. We're all here for one reason and that’s we love the game. Yesterday, man, I was playing Warzone for eight hours after practice, but yeah, you know, started that org in 2020 and we just keep climbing man to the top. And mark my words, the Global Warzone event, TD’s gonna win it all. Trust, TD on top.
Are there any other NFL players you game with? And does it help with team relationships and chemistry?
JuJu - Most definitely, man. A lot of guys from our team play a lot of video games. They play Call of Duty, they play Fortnite. I wish more guys would play FIFA, man. I'm a big FIFA guy.
I think that chemistry, that team bonding, it helps definitely. Even just the communication, being able to talk on the mic and have that communication, it helps out on the football field to identify the defence to, locate where the ball's at and to attack and score.
We hear a lot of talk around if esports pros are athletes. What’s your opinion on the debate?
JuJu - We watch streamers on these platforms perform at the best of their ability. The same way when you guys pay Pay-Per-View to watch Mayweather perform at his best, to watch LeBron to watch, you know, these athletes perform because they're the best at what they do.
Even myself, I would turn on a stream just to watch these guys, learn new tactics or learn how I can get better like them? How can I play? So yeah, I definitely agree that gamers are definitely professional athletes, man.
You can see all things PlayerX on their Twitter, or on their website here.
