The Evolution of Esports with Industry Leader Jordan Rambis

What would you say is Jordan Rambis?

Because I'd probably say two things. I'm extremely grateful for all the hard work that my parents continue to do to make my life better. So definitely doing things to make my family proud and my parents proud is always a big motivator to me. And then the other aspect is how.

Did you take esports and really put it on the grand stage that it deserved and also just kept it moving and kept it viable.

I think I was just in the right place place at the right time with the right knowledge and passion. I was again just a die hard gamer.

The income that some of these gamers.

Make, some of the salaries for esports depends on the game. Some will be or there's other games that you'll be the top player of that game and your salary. Welcome to Mick Unplugged where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves and game changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mickey.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we're joined by a visionary leader at the forefront of esports and entertainment industries. He's a strategic thinker with a passion for shaping the future and he's raising the bar for what's possible in immersive experiences. Please join me in welcoming the innovator of the forward thinking, the dynamic, the producer of the year in my book, Mr. Jordan Rambis. Jordan, how are you doing today, brother?

Thank you so much. I'm doing great. Lovely to be here and I might need to just go around and walk around with you because you are the perfect hype man. That was, that was the best intro I've ever had. Thank you so much.

No, I definitely know that you've had better than that, man. I definitely know you've had better than that. So Jordan, man, I know that you are a guy that has so much going on. You're always doing things, looking to, I'm going to say innovate. Like that's my word of the day to be innovative and not sit still deal. Where did that come from, man?

Probably I've always been a stubborn person, to be honest. I was a stubborn little kid. I was on a, you know, just the kid that could never sit down in class and if someone told them no, you can't do something, I'd figure out a way to do it. And I think kind of growing up and utilizing that as an adult is I'll look towards an industry, I'll see some sort of issue within the industry. Some sort of problem to be fixed. But I also know my limitations. So what I'll do is I'll find, I'll figure out like, okay, hey, here's the problem, here's maybe a solution for it. Who's gonna be the right people that I can put in place and empower and take a minority position and really let them do what they do best. So that's kind of what I've done because that is actually how I was brought into my first big project. I was brought in to Axiomatic Gaming, which is a investment fund. We received investment from Disney Groupon, owners of Group awl, Michael Jordan, Tony Robbins, Dick Clark Productions. And I was paired up with this extremely intelligent gentleman, Bruce Stein, who was the former, I think it was, CEO or COO of Mattel and, and had worked in a lot of fun capacity before that. And I was just the gaming industry guy. I knew my lane. I'm just going to give him the information that I know best. And he was going to be kind of the, the puppet master kind of making, okay, well this is how we should do this then, because you tell this. So I've been working to be in that position where I can be the person that brings everyone together, they feed the info to and then I push out to everyone what, what we should do next. So for example, you know, if, if, if any of the listeners maybe want kind of advice on, on ways to go about with what I'm doing now. Almost everything I'm thinking now is very AI driven in terms of what's a need within the community, how can we identify people or how can that system be brought into an AI capacity to be more efficient. So one of them is actually just become a lot more relevant. Fortunately for the company, but unfortunately for the fires that occurred. But it's a AI system we built out called PlanCheck Solver. You can go, it's actually up right now, PlanCheck Solver.com and what it just does is it cross references your building designs with local city ordinances. So the hope is with all the fires that have occurred in la, we're taking these lead times from six months to six years or five years, whatever it's going to be taking to get these business plans approved or building plans approved down to, you know, the hope would be just, you know, instantaneous feedback on, hey, everything's up to code. You can, you know, start on the next step.

You know what's crazy about that, Jordan? I started my career, my life and still am on a consulting standpoint in the insurance space. Right? So now imagine what's going on with the fires in la. What's happened with the fires in la. Imagine from an insurance perspective now, right. From a rating perspective. And I know I have a ton of insurance folks that are listeners and viewers. I might need to connect you with some players, Jordan, if you haven't already. Because my, my insurance, my risk management cap comes on there all of a sudden and now we could almost get individualized ratings on buildings instead of having blanket ratings based on, you know, where you're physically located. But now you're aggregated against others. This could open the door for individualized rating.

No, definitely. I think there needs to be a complete rethinking of insurance for natural disasters, especially when it comes to one that, you know, some of the government's actions can increase or decrease the risk itself. So I think it would be nice to see a program similar to what Cal Fire in theory is, but a way where when an insurance company is not offering fire protection or flood or something, that there should be a little bit more government aid on that side, that there's offerings by the government that can help subsidize those costs in terms of reducing the risk. So like let's just say, for example, fire, you know, you have your home fire protection through your insurance company. If something that, you know, you have a barbecue or something that happened that you know was. Was more of your fault, quote, unquote. And then something that again, if you look at the fires in L A, what's a fire protection service where we can analyze where the risk factors are and actually incentivize property and homeowners to implement pieces that actually will reduce their premiums being paid to insurance. So example, here comes we, we do an analysis using all these different factors of your home. Okay, well, now we're going to monitor this home via satellite. You can do all the AI stuff for privacy so it's never any human interaction on it where they don't see. Like you could blur out people and all that, but it could track is their shrubbery growing within five feet of the home. Hey, do you have this, you have a pool? If you buy this water pump system and the sprinkler guard will reduce your premiums by this much a month. And only through tech can that be something that's scalable. But you can then have the state backing an insurance program that is using this tech and AI systems to be okay. Hey, instead of trying to look at this problem just on the grander scale, we can get down to the smaller, nitty gritty details of is this house being. Doing what it needs to do to be protected? Is this house doing what's new need to be productive? And I think, again, just looking at those issues and using tech and AI as a problem, as a way to solve those problems, I think is just, you know, what everyone should be looking at.

Yeah.

Yeah. If, you know, any insurance people that want to get that done, it would be great to. Because I'm just hearing these horror stories that's one after another. I feel so bad for these people.

Totally agree. So. So Keith Frank, Chris, Darren, Daniel, Ryan, I'm setting you all up with a call with Jordan because I think all of you, maybe me and Jordan can. Can definitely give some insight there. So, Jordan, this can definitely happen. But, you know, I don't want to bore people with insurance.

Right?

Because. Because we know insurance is not sexy till you need it. And then when you need it, it's still not sexy because it. It's crazy by that point. But you talked about AI and you talked about, you know, again, going back to your. Your just sense of innovation. Right. You know, make unplugged. We talk about your. Because that reason that kind of makes you do the things that you do, that big purpose that you have in life. What would you say is Jordan Rambis?

Because I'd probably say two things. I'm extremely grateful for all the hard work that my parents continue to do to. To make my life better. So definitely doing things to make my family proud and my parents proud is always a big motivator to me. And then the other aspect is probably like, I have like, this kind of like, inner superhero wannabe child. I grew up, I actually had a speech, a pretty bad speech impediment. I was deaf for two, three years. I had to get a couple surgeries when I was like three to five. And it gave me this kind of more awkward speech impediment. So I was kind of like that nerdy kid in class. I'd go home and play video games. And the other thing I would do is I had a. A red wagon that I would call my WED wagon back then. And it was full of comic books, and I take that down the street and I would just read comic books all day long. So I got obsessed with this kind of superhero mentality. So it's one of these things where I just, you know, always strive to see if, like, hey, what's this? What's something I can do that could help the world? And I Think there's also ways to do that that can be cross beneficial. So one of my friends from college, after college got diagnosed with malignant melanoma. He's fine now, but we were trying to give out sunscreen and stuff and realized that wasn't scalable. So my first kind of tech hardware company I started was something called Bright Guard that I started with one of my college friends, Ryan Warren. And it was automated sunscreen dispensers. Just like you would have hand sanitizer dispensers at places and we would sell the ad and you'd be able to sell the ad for more than what you would sell the sunscreen for. So it allowed us to give out free sunscreen while making a potentially profitable business, which we eventually get to. So I think something like that too, where, you know, again with the plan check solver, something where you can innovate and actually help people make the world a better place, but at the same time have a successful business, it'll allow you to help more people. Right. If we were just giving out sunscreen, we might be able to kind of save a few lives here and there, whatever. But by what we did in getting hundreds of thousands of gallons of sunscreen out there to people who didn't have it on at the time, Bayer, who was our supplier, said we statistically saved hundreds or thousands of lives, which is kind of a cool thing that again, allows it to scale more because it is a business for profit.

Yeah. That's amazing, man. One of the things I want to give you credit for, I know you get a lot of credit for it, but you don't really talk about as much as I'm going to say you should. So these are the words of Mick and Mick only you were, in my mind, one of the key people that were responsible for the explosion of the esports industry and the esports trend and bringing it to the forefront and really making it a thing.

Right?

Because there's been, let's just be honest, you're out in LA and Hollywood. There's. There's hundreds of ideas that never really take ground, right. Like there's a lot of money that. That gets wasted and lost in ideas. How did you take esports and really put it on the grand stage that it deserved and also just kept it moving and kept it viable?

Well, I appreciate that there's obviously a lot more people who had a lot more of an impact on it than me, but I think I was just in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge and Passion. I was again, just a die hard gamer and had been meeting with Riot Games and I've always wanted to get into video game development and just saw this path where I was lucky enough to have a sports background and knowledge about the sports industry while also being a die hard gamer and understanding a little bit of business. So I kind of saw that opportunity within esports and with the right network was able to get my friends within gaming and my investor friends and my sports friends and their connections and just to get everyone together saying, hey, esports is becoming a thing. We could be on the forefront of kind of trying to make it go down the right path and be on that upswing. And yeah, I mean it was just right, right as I jumped into it, you know, I think we just had a very notable group around us crossing all these different industries that it was definitely some of those names made esports, you know, kind of go to the next level. Whereas again, getting it taken seriously now. I still think there's a lot of innovation that needs to happen with esports and I think there's also a lot of misconstruing of what esports is. But I think people viewing gaming content for a multitude of reasons. Entertainment, education on the games, there's, there's a lot of different aspects to what esport or you know, watching someone play on Twitch can be. But it's, it's always funny because you get these people that don't get that. They're like, why would they, why would you want to watch someone play video games? Like that's, that's not something the naysayers or it's like some of the game development stuff is like, oh, you're building a game that allows your users to build games. Why would gamers want to do that? They're lazy. They don't want someone else to build, you know, the game for them. They just want someone to build the game for them. And I think one thing, other two, going back to your question earlier is just like you're always going to have a lot of people saying no. Even, even if you're in the right and it's very obvious and 99 people saying yes, there will always be that one person saying no. So it just kind of depends on who you talk to at what time and get that no or whatever. Just if that's something of a passion for you and you feel like this is a need that needs to get solved, there's not a single project or single investment I ever made or a single idea I ever had. That there weren't no's to almost every time. Actually every time pretty much, right?

Pretty much. And what's crazy is, you know, obviously I've known about gaming and esports and all that, but it wasn't until Covid that I realized how much money people were actually making. And I was sitting there like, oh, I thought fun and games was fun and games. I didn't realize that there are 13, 14, 15 year olds making money like that. And then also when adults making crazy money, like for the casual listener to understanding esports, talk about the income that some of these gamers make and why this has become very important.

So there's two kind of aspects to talk about. Again, there's the esport athlete that's being paid as a, as a competitive gamer, which a lot of them, they'll sometimes be the same person. The person making the most is that. But a lot of times what, you know, being the best player, it's a. You're a really good player. Maybe if there's a team, you're good at being a team, but you're just really good at that game. And you know, some of the salaries for esports depends on the game. Some will be, you know, you'll be the top player of that game and only making tens of thousands or there's other games that you'll be the top player that game and your salary as a from the competitive team could be in the millions. So it really just kind of depends. But then if you add the aspect where they're a good streamer, that's where you get the biggest checks. And there was whenever you kind of see in the news, oh, this esport guy or this streamer gamer was paid this. It's it typically because they might be good at the game, but then their personality and how they engage and how they create their audience, they know kind of all the right pieces at all the right times. But they had one just on his streaming deal alone was $80 million over two years. And there's a lot of people on that money.

Yeah, real money that Jordan is talking about right there.

Yeah. And you get a direct connection too with your audience. So you can sell your sponsorships. On top of that, you can build out products and really get this immediate response from your fans about, you know, who you are and what you're doing. So you see all these guys that again, like Kai, I think it's pronounced Kaisenat, right?

Yeah.

And all these other people that now they're just, they're making more money than the celebrities that they bring on, you.

Know, which is crazy. Which is crazy. And, and here's a confession. Nobody's ever heard this before, so. And physically I was really good at Madden, right? Like Madden was, was my game and that really was the only game I ever played. And then, you know when, when it got to where you could play other people online, right? Because I always just played individuals or family members or friends. In Jordan, I used to bust heads.

Yeah.

Like we used to have rules.

Like, okay, your little sister had no chance. She.

When my kids were 7, 9 and 12, they couldn't touch me. But there was this one time, Jordan, I was like, all right, I'm gonna go play online. I'm gonna do this play against somebody I don't know. And again, I bust heads. Jordan, I got crushed, like out of the gate crushed. And then you can communicate with the person on the other end. And it was a 12 year old and I was like, how is this 12 year old who doesn't even watch football? That can be. Because I'm playing football logically. Like a football player would play, right? Like gonna run the ball, do some little screens and they're up there like, no, Mr. Hunt. And first when they called me Mr. Hunt, I knew life was over for me and I could never play Madden again. Like, there's a way to play the game, the game, like you're a footballer trying to play it like it's a football game. Like, no, you gotta understand it's a game and there's ways to like beat the game. I'm like, yeah, but I don't wanna play that way. I know you can maneuver your tackle over here and put them at receiver and put your receiver. Like, I know all that, but they're like, no, that's, that's how you're supposed to play the game. And I was like, oh, I'm done. And I haven't played madden in like five years since I got beat by 12 year old.

Yeah. And the 12 year old will smack talk you better too. You'll just be like, oh.

Yeah.

No, it's, it's cool. I mean they're, it is the great thing. It's actually, I'm too old. I'm aged out. I used to be decently competitive at a few titles where I'd be master ranking or you know, diamond or whatever it may be across multiple titles from like multiple different genres. But now I get in there and it's, yeah, like you said, like, I'll have my like 10 year old, 12 year old nephew is. Is now kicking my ass at Fortnite. I'm just like, right. It used to be my thing. All right, we're not. We're playing zero build now. You don't get a build. We got to. We got to go. And we'll just be shooters. But the thing that they were describing to you is I think one of the things that gets undervalued for gamers is most of these games. A lot of these games are about problem solving. And I kind of look at them as almost like, you know, digital. Kind of more fun to play chess in that capacity. Because, again, gaming is a massive genre, but for the most part, you're trying to understand the mechanics of a game and problem solve on how to have like, the best outcome for it. Right. And there's some that are just straight puzzle games, you know, like a, like a lower Croft, Tomb Raider type game. And then there's other ones where again, like, like they were saying, hey, if you run this play, you have like a better chance of getting it because this is how the game works. And I think a lot of gamers actually should do that more than they probably do. They probably just play the game and not trying to identify, like, where are the mechanics of the game that I could, like, be better at? Because I do think it's one of those things where you can train your brain certain ways to, like, be more analytical and using that where you're like, okay, hey, I'm going to look at gaming as more problem solving than just entertainment.

Yeah, totally agree. So the evolution of Jordan Rambis, right? So again, crazy cool in the esports entertainment arena. Now you're also a producer man. Like, you don't quit, right? Like, every time I think I've got Jordan figured out, there's a new aspect to the game, no pun intended, that, that you're doing. So I want to talk about Running Point specifically in a moment, but, like, what got you into the. The film and the entertainment aspect that way, aside from, you know, living over there? But what got you there?

I mean, the. It kind of began when I was. I had left the restaurant industry. I worked my way from like a bartender to a GM and then kind of wanted to get out of the restaurant industry. And I became a account executive for a software company. That was kind of more explained to me that I was going to be like, more like marketing, but it was like cold call marketing type thing, which, which wasn't, you know, my. My cup of tea. So then I had an opportunity to be a Production assistant on a TV show and just kind of fell in love with that process of a bunch of people just kind of sitting in the room being like, hey, wouldn't this be funny? Or wouldn't this be entertaining? It was with Craig Kilborn, who's a legend, to say the least. But he took me under his wing, and there was actually one joke that I pitched him which, like, normally, like, production assistants wouldn't pitch a joke. And I was just like, hey, what do you think about this? And he's like, I like it. Let's do it, and put it on. That kind of gave me that bug. So I spent hundreds of hours trying to develop reality TV shows and putting together sizzles and, you know, trying to get a show sold. Never could. Failed for three, four years as I was being a production assistant on other shows and then connected with one of my friends. We want to do a horror film. And kind of sitting down thinking about what we could do is like, oh, well, what if we go after an existing, like, iconic horror property and use that to leverage to help get a film done? So we went to the Winchester house in Santa Clara. San Jose. San Jose. And because there's a lot of lore around it, and pitch them, and had to actually put on their haunted house as a way to convince them to give us the rights to do the film. So we actually, like, managed and produced their haunted house during Halloween for a couple years before they, like, were willing to kind of give us the rights to go try to do the film for it, which we got Helen Mirren for. I didn't have too many hands on the two horror projects I produced. I kind of helped in certain ways that kind of made it happen. But the jump to the TV and the scripted, doing the Lakers documentary and helping package that and be a part of that was amazing. And then this, the what is now running point was something that I always joked around with my mom about how much fun it would be. And Jeannie Buss, my mom, had been trying to do a similar show for a long time. It was pitched more as on a drama side and looked at everything from more of a drama angle. And just being around my mom and Jeannie, like, the one power that they have to kind of keep going and deal with a lot of the. The struggles that they have that the headaches that they have is they laugh. They laugh a lot, they crack jokes, they try to keep the spirits light. And some of the stuff that they have to deal with is so ridiculous. You can't do Anything but laugh at it. So repositioned it as a comedy. Finally convinced them to like, let me take it out and brought it to a longtime friend, Andrew Thomas, who we were first maybe gonna talk to some other people, but then he goes, no, like, you gotta talk to Mindy Kaling and Howard Klein, who did the Office. Cause I was pitching it as the Office, but the Lakers.

Yeah.

So then Andrew made those intros and it was off to running from there. It was a lot of fun. The development process was really cool. Going back and talking about the old stories. Cause we just had finished the documentary. So it's like, oh, even here's what, you know, other things that happened that we didn't put in the documentary that could be funny to do. Because now we can do it as it's a fictitious comedy. So, you know, it's, it's. You can change things around and have more fun with it. Rather, when it's a documentary and you have to like, kind of stay in your lane.

Too many permissions in documentaries.

Right?

Like, if it's a fictitious comedy, like you get to be a little creative because it's branded that way.

Right, Exactly. Yeah. So it's, it's been really fun. And there was a lot of laughs during that process. And again, that's back to your question earlier of what drives you. It's like I love, love the humor, love making people laugh, love making people entertained. And also it's like if my mom and I are able to crack up for hours, you know, talking about all the stories and funny situations, that's, you know, it's about what drives happiness in your life.

Yep. No, agree, man. I agree. Huge fan of it. You know, obviously I saw the trailer a few weeks ago and then I was like, oh, this is dynamic. Like, this is gonna be game changing. So huge fan. And I'm going to do my part in promoting it as well too. Like, freaking love it.

Yeah, put it on every house, every tv on repeat, whatever, Whatever we need to do. I'd love to get a season two out of this. It was such a fun season one.

So let's do it now. Do I get to be a part of season two?

We'll put a little, maybe we can get a little cameo in there somewhere. We'll see.

I'm a Die Hard Laker, man. I'm a Die Hard Laker. Which leads me to my next question or proposal. I think there needs to be growing up Rambus as a series somewhere, bro. Because I know, I know there's funny stories I know that there are moments of heartbreak, like growing up. Rambus is something that people want. Just throwing that out there for you.

That's very funny. No, there's actually. There was a couple very big reality TV production groups that back in the day wanted to do like a Rambus and bus type thing and some Just a Rambus type thing. But I have no desire to be famous whatsoever. I want to, you know, as much as. As little as I can be, to still do the things that I want to do. Fame is, you know, it's not something I want to be a part of, but, you know, it is cool to kind of picture what that story would be. That sounds like a fun idea. That show would be a fun show.

We're going to make it happen, I promise you. So, Jordan, man, I know you're busy guide, thank you for gracing us with some time, but before I get you out of here, two questions I've always wanted to ask. Jordan, favorite Laker of all time.

Well, I mean, love my dad, so I'm going to have to say. I'm going to have to say him. Mark Matson was one of the nicest guys.

Mad Dog.

We both volunteered for the Red Cross back in the day, and he was just. He's just a character, and one of the nicest guys would always light up a room. But if you're. If you're saying everything, it has to be Kobe, you know, I mean, that was. That's, you know, knew him when he kind of first came to the team. And I'd be over there back in the day. You could, like, have your family over at the practices over in the corner. So I'd be off just kind of like playing, and he was always. Just. Just came over with just a nice big smile. And it's. It's a terrible loss to say the least. But he's inspired so many, and I think it's. I don't think there's anyone in the league that could say that he inspired this mentality of greatness in so many people that I know have changed their lives because of that. So I'd have to say, you know, after my dad, hands down, would be Kobe. Truly, truly an inspiration.

My favorite Laker of all time is Kobe, for sure. Your dad's number three, so Kobe, Magic.

Who's number two?

Magic.

Magic.

So Magic's the reason I love the Lakers. So I'm a. I'm a Boston sports guy, although I live and I'm from South Carolina. But here's the deal. My uncle played for the Patriots. So I grew up. I was born a Patriot fan, but the first basketball game he took me to was Lakers, Celtics, and I fell in love with Magic Johnson, and so I became a Laker fan. So I'm the only person that loves the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Bruins. But the Lakers are my basketball team. I hate the Celtics. I hate the Celtics.

Yeah. I mean, that makes at least the back in the day, the new. The new ownership's a lot nicer, but Celtics is. I don't know. Never understood that. That mentality of the 80s Celtics fans. But they're die hards, that's for sure. But it's fun. I mean. I mean, that's what, you know, you need that in sports. That's the one thing I never got about the football and the penalties and stuff for, like, celebrating and all that. Because that's like. To me, like, that's like. That's how you build stuff. You build rivalries, you build entertainment. You want to see them celebrate. You want to see the emotion.

Yeah. You're telling people to go hurt each other, but then don't, don't, don't celebrate it. Or don't have the emotion after you.

It'd be like producing a TV show or movie and being like, okay, just say the lines. Don't show emotion.

How boring is that?

Yeah. So I love it. I love to see that kind of. Just that, you know, the heart come out of the game in whichever capacity.

Cool. Second question I've always wanted to ask Jordan Rambis, your least favorite Celtic.

I won't. I won't say his name because I don't like bashing people, but I think we all. We all know. It's Kevin McHale. It's Kevin.

We need to have the highlight rolling right now. We need to have the tackle rolling. Make sure everybody's seeing this play.

Yeah. Obviously I don't know him from any experience, but if I had to say anyone. Yeah. But there's.

He could be your least favorite but most respected at the same time. Right. It's not a bad thing to have at least favorite of something.

I would have gone up and kicked him on the shin after when I saw the videos if I knew. No, but most likely would probably be Gordon Hayward. He was. He's actually was big in esports as well, and really one of those ambassadors of a traditional sports player who loves gaming, so. And a very nice guy as well. So.

I don't have a favorite Celtic Jordan.

Yeah. Not even one. You just like.

I'm a uncle dislike. I don't have a favorite Duke player.

Either.

Which is tough for me right now with Laker basketball, knowing who their coach is and my. My hatred of Duke basketball, it's tough.

Well, I'll stick up for him. I will say JJ's a nice guy and very intelligent guy, so if you say so. Yeah, if you're gonna. If you're gonna have one, he wouldn't be a bad one to have.

I can't do it. I can't do it. Jordan, man, I know you're busy, so I appreciate your time. Last thing. Where can people follow and find you?

I mean, again, I try not to, but I guess. I guess on Instagram. If anyone wants to reach out on Instagram, just, you know, jordanrambis ordanrambis. But. But I appreciate the time. Thank you so much and looking forward to more conversations in the future.

You got it, brother. And for all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Unleash it.

Thank you for tuning in to make Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.