At IGEC 2018, various organizations voiced the importance of keeping to a strong philosophy to garner loyalty with fans and clients alike.  We touched base with the founders of Ultimate Media Ventures, Jon Bukosky and Nate Eckman, and found their “community first” philosophy is no different. They have maintained partnerships with DXRacer, Linksys, and HyperX since day one and, even now, the ULT apparel line is working with Philadelphia Fusion, Fusion University, eUnited, and Red Reserve.

Both Jon and Nate had lots to discuss in regards to what’s on the horizon, such as a fighting game tournament at E/AZ  (esports Arizona) on June 23rd, their mid-west plans with Player Omega, and their thoughts on Battle Royale games as well as the future of mobile gaming.

Thanks for joining us.  Please give us an idea of how both of you came together and what you hope to accomplish with Ultimate.

Nate: Our company has two very specific things that it does between content and products.  JB has a very rich history in content and I have a very rich history in products. Together, Ultimate is pioneering those spaces.  A lot of times, our interviews and panels are pretty focused on one aspect of business, whereas together, we have a robust and unique type of company.

JB: I came from Machinima.  Nate was from an agency with Machinima and that's how I met him.  When we started this company, it was lessons learned, or I should say, frustrations learned with how media wasn't addressing this market correctly.  They weren't concerned with the community in general and it was really more about the bottom-line. And that's not what esports is. If people really wanted to understand bottom-line, they would stay away from esports because almost every single company in this industry is in the red.

" You need to be doing this because it’s inspired you to be something towards this community.  If you take that opinion, you'll make money. "

We started the company with one mandate: community first.  Companies that are inauthentic tend to meddle with community and that's not how you do it.  I think we're good at what we do because we stand by morals of community first and we always do things with that in our sight.

Nate: We can contribute something that's more unique and we have to do it ourselves because we can't just wait around for a publisher or brand to cosign it.  We come from doing a decade of designs for publishers and I just want to make something that's modern and wearable and I want to tell stories that are true to us.  It's that honest and humble beginning that we can still point back to and it's still true today.

JB: It’s about being positive.  If a company that could be my competitor came up to me and asked, "hey, can we borrow some computers or some monitors for an activation we want to do?", I would wholeheartedly help them.  It's the greater good of what I always call: back in the day. Esports has almost been around for two decades. We’re always cognizant of who the positive people were back in the day and we will help them wholeheartedly even if you think they’re my competitor.

Yet just a few years ago, people still made fun of gamers.  I have a kid that has played semi-pro for over a decade. They are the disenfranchised youth.  If you are an entity that made fun of these kids or the aspirational gamer, I probably won’t help because you’re not doing it for the right reasons. You need to be doing this because it’s inspired you to be something towards this community.

If you take that opinion, you'll make money.  If you don't have that opinion, you're going to lose a lot of money, probably in the red.  We'll probably be one of two or three companies that hits the black this year. There are not that many people who can say that.

Nate: The bigger idea is that JB and I as individuals are evolving as gamers and as entrepreneurs. This business is a reflection of that. The partners that value our contributions are evolving as well and they might be giant, like the Philadelphia Fusions of the world.  Our partners want to evolve and grow as well and we're a vehicle for them to accelerate that and to explore new ideas. JB talked about the aspirational youth; that's our future and that's the legacy that we leave behind and that we help foster and grow.  We take that super serious.

We make something that connects people’s passions. To us, it really is a philosophy and lifestyle. Those are areas we live every day and we only partner with people who have those shared values and we work with collaborators who share those values.  We're together on the front lines creating a new reality. It's an awesome time to be a gamer in culture.

JB: It's creating moments in time.  Whether it’s a tournament or a show, an activation or a piece of merchandise, you’re creating an amazing moment of time for the community.  That's what we think about everyday: “how do we create more moments that are positive and fun and aspirational?”. That's what keeps our employees going.  To us, this isn't a job. I wake up, I have fun every day. Every day is different. This is literally the wild west and we're defining it through our lens, not the lens of a book, or instructor, or some guy on Wall Street.

You’ve recently worked with Fusion University.  What are your thoughts on the jersey controversy?

Nate: We may have designed the jersey, but not the “FU” (Fusion University) logo itself.  The perception of “FU” is subjective when it goes out into the world. When we design clothes, we design to make it look and feel great and less about having it be controversial for the sake of being controversial.  

It does shine a light on a gray area.  We support our partners and we’re fans of gaming.  We realize and acknowledge this is new territory for everyone.

Philadelphia Fusion is fundamentally an amazing organization that believes in the fusion of cultures and that really aligns with us.  Whatever you saw with the “FU” incident, we’re going to make really exciting stuff that the fans, the League and everyone is going to love.  You will get to see some more unique pieces that feel very modern, contemporary, art-driven and player-driven. There’s going to be a lot of exciting new product launches.

JB: Personally, I had no problem with it.  I thought what they wanted to do with the “FU” jersey was brilliant.  It’s in the eye of the beholder. The world is a crazy place these days and you’ve got to add a bit of humor to it once in awhile.

Player Omega is described as a “multi-city esports lifestyle tour”.  Can you tell us more about it?

JB: Player Omega is an initiative that we're working on that will be for next Spring-Summer.  It's going to be 12-14 cities across middle America. It's not going to be in major metropolitan areas.  We're going to roll through cities like Hershey and Tulsa. That’s where the base is at scale; a lot of middle America can't come to L.A., New York or Vegas for a major event.  

I want to make sure they feel like they are a part of something.  Player Omega is that. It's gaming, esports, fashion, food, art, music.  Think of what Vans Warped Tour was for our generation. This generation is going to have Player Omega.

At IGEC, panelists noted there is heavy collegiate esports activity in the midwest.  Are you hoping to capture that audience?

JB: Absolutely.  I think the high school and college movement you're seeing right now is incredibly significant.  These are the next aspirational gamers and that's why brands like Super League Gaming are so important to the ecosystem.  There was never a way for someone who wanted to play in the ESL or MLG circuit to have a half-way to that.

Nate: E/AZ is another example of that.  Vegas is a saturated market. But you go to Arizona and it’s a blue ocean.  The kids within the greater state area come from across all the colleges to support it.

E/AZ is a fighting game tournament coming up this June 23rd.  Why did you decide on fighting games?

JB:  It's always going to be a fighting game community activation.  The FGC is one of the coolest communities on a global base. It’s 1-on-1 or 2v2 and anyone can come to play.  It's one of the only movements where you can have a player like Axe, La Luna, or Anti in the bracket and I could still be matched against any one of them, even if I were a total newb.  If you talk about Call of Duty, League of Legends, DOTA, or any other team-based game, that'll never happen.  That's what esports is all about: the community coming together to play, regardless of your talent.

How did Talking Stick Resort become your venue of choice for E/AZ?

JB: We came up with it because of our partner, Talking Stick Resort, which is the Salt River Pima tribe.  They're forward-thinking and amazing business people. They looked at it as: we’re creating the destination of entertainment in all of Arizona.  So we went out there and worked with the colleges like ASU, University of Arizona, GCU, and NAU and created something that the local community can now call their own.  And it's now turned into a pro-sanctioned points event.

They're technically the first ones to go at it in a very continuous way.  As a resort or brick-and-mortar entity, you can't just do one event and be done.  You've got to build the brand. We got 100 people in the first event, but for the last event, we got 600 people at the door.  The tribal communities aren’t going to compete with The Bellagio or MGM on the Strip, but they will compete in local markets creating entertainment experiences for the community.  That's why we love working with the tribal communities; it's a totally different business scenario than what you're dealing with.

How do you feel about the rise of Battle Royale-style games like Fortnite?

JB: Fortnite is sending a message to all the publishers right now.  They're truly embracing the community that has embraced them and they're doing it by putting their money where their mouth is.  It's put up or shut up. Esports is going to grow when you have the opportunity as a publisher to put real prize money on the table.  

Look at being a team owner.  It's incredibly expensive to own an organization.  They're expensive to run and hard to handle. The only way you can have teams grow and be stable and not always taking on capital is to have amazing publishers like Epic saying: “Hey, we know who you are.  We support you and we're gonna put our money where our mouth is.”

On the flipside, it’s caused urgency with some of the other FPS titles out there.  I think what you're going to see is a butterfly effect where a lot of these teams that are playing other FPS games are probably going to pivot into Fortnite.  It's going to cause ripples and you’re going to see teams abandoning other FPS titles because it's not sustainable for them to keep their teams operating, let alone profitable.

" You can’t sit on your laurels and think you’re always going to be the best.  Complacency will kill you in the industry. "

Should there also be attention placed on Clash Royale and other mobile games?

Nate: As we continue to grow as gamers, the ability to play games anywhere without being tethered to any particular place is amazing.  The fact that there's the ability to have mobile-specific professional leagues; mobile is becoming a vehicle to completely wipe away any barriers with where we can go with competitive games.  Gaming is truly becoming ubiquitous. I love that as a cultural trend and as a cultural shift.

JB: It's much more than Clash Royale.  You need to see what Summoners War is doing. You need to see what PUBG Mobile is doing.  The PUBG Mobile experience is absolutely crazy amazing.

Mobile is a very interesting paradigm right now as everybody continues to figure it out.  You're also going to see pro teams pivoting where they're gonna say this is their mobile division.  With mobile, other games are coming out all the time. You can’t sit on your laurels and think you’re always going to be the best.  Complacency will kill you in the industry.

Nate: Keep your eyes open for Summoners War. It's mindful of experiential design beyond the gaming itself.  They love their community. I would say they're going to be extremely exciting things in-and-around what they're doing that we're excited about.

Thank you for your time.  Is there anything further we should be on the lookout for?

Nate: We’re doing our 2nd annual E3 pre-party media open house.  We’re also doing events mid-E3 week with our partners like Fusion and DXRacer.  We’re also excited for what’s coming this Summer with content, product drops, and events.

JB: Watch our announcements in July, we have a women’s event coming up.  We’re also launching our first dedicated women’s product collection under the ULT brand.

Nate: We are huge champions of diversity and inclusiveness.  Gaming is multi-cultural and multi-generational. We're all in this community together and need to embrace that.  If we can do that with products and events, we will continue to do that.