Category: Interviews

When the topic of what drives their hustle came up, each woman listed their distinct reasons: Proving the opposite sex wrong, driving the trolls out, growing their brand, paving the way for the next generation, etc. All efforts worth applauding.

Another point of interest was the idea of growing one’s own community. All four gamers have been doing an amazing job spreading their image across various entertainment mediums and building their brand to truly mean something, so it was great to hear what goes into amassing such a sizable fanbase. Tactics included finding other like-minded people in their field, networking with fellow gamers, regularly interacting with their followers through Discord and more. The rest of the roundtable featured some equally riveting dialogue regarding topics such as the gaming hobby as a whole, dealing with online toxicity (and coming into contact with rare cases of positivity), and how gaming will evolve years from now.

Karim—this week’s guest on Inside the Screen, hosted by Aaron “Don” Dukes—has already done some major things within the confines of his streaming career. He’s also partnered with plenty of other notable tech/gaming peripheral companies such as Logitech G, Gamer Advantage, Blue Microphone, AMD Gaming and Herman Miller. And to top it all off, his face was plastered on a billboard in Times Square during Twitch’s celebration of Black History Month.

When the cameras are on, Karim keeps his “Dojo Fam” entertained thanks to the nice variety of games he regularly has in rotation. He’s dabbled in a bunch of titles, such as Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, God of War (2018), FIFA 22, Halo Infinite, etc. But Karim’s biggest claim to gaming fame is Apex Legends, which is the sort of game he’s better at than most. His slick first-person shooter skills came into play on a professional level when he competed in the 2021 Twitch Rivals – NA Showdown for the game. Alongside fellow streamers Vinc3ntvega and FunFPS, Karim nabbed 18th place under the moniker “Team KarimCheese.” It’s always worth tuning in to watch Karim put in that work when he hops on the sticks for Apex Legends.

Karim is a great representative of the ever-growing POC space among Twitch streamers as a whole. His huge sense of humility, super-chill demeanor, and lovable affection for all things anime and futbol will instantly make you an avid follower after just one viewing. With 17K+ Twitch, 8K+ Twitter and 52K+ TikTok followers on deck and counting, Karim’s fanbase is getting bigger by the day. We can’t wait to see where his streaming career takes him next.

Gabe’s work accolades are definitely worth celebrating. He previously worked as an on-camera talent for The Game Agency, plus he also did a bit of show hosting and event emceeing work for Frederator Networks, Inc., Cheddar Inc., and Andbox. He also tended to a gaming content and event coordination role for 368, which is a New York-based gamer and creator house. Gabe also has his very own YouTube channel, where he posts anime hot takes, live streams his numerous gaming sessions, and posts episodes of The Gabe Olivero Show. If you take a trip over to this Instagram, you can take a peep at his many workout clips, various excerpts from his opinionated videos, and hilarious interactions with his mother (who’s kind of a mini-celebrity in her own right). Now that Gabe is linked to Elgato, the sky is the limit for his future moves within the content creation and gaming industries.

Gabe has a lot of love for numerous things – he’s big on music, physical fitness, gaming, and anime. When reflecting on his many fandoms, Gabe spoke about the uncool factor aimed at people like him way back when – “I remember when liking anime wasn’t cool. Video games were always in a weird spot because, you know, people on the sports teams were always into video games. Everybody kinda played video games, but it wasn’t accepted as much. But now it’s like everybody does it. I have a friend whose business is going to people’s houses in the middle of nowhere in the country and teaches people’s parents how to play video games with their kids. Or teaches kids how to be good at video games so they can relate with other kids. Because that’s all everybody does. If you’re not playing video games, you’re not connected.”

When Aaron inquires about Gabe’s top five anime shows, Gabe gushes over some of the best names in the genre – “You got Yu Yu Hakusho in there, for sure. For Shonen, it’s Naruto. The only other competition to it is One Piece. My favorite slice of life at the moment is Bunny Girl Senpai. If I go mech anime? Originally it was Gundam, the original series, but at this moment it’s [Neon Genesis] Evangelion. And the last two? A movie would probably be Spirited Away. Because it was a childhood anime, it has to be Dragon Ball.”

Make sure you check out the rest of Aaron’s lively conversation with Gabe to learn about his vegan eating habits, his friends’ reactions to watching his content, and his reaction to the ongoing developments within the world of VR & tech altogether.

During a recent episode of the Aaron “Don” Dukes hosted Inside the Screen, Sparks joined as a special guest from Cancun, where he was hosting a special Madden gaming tournament for NFL’s El Snap channels, and shared a ton of insight into his approach with XSET. “So it’s really not starting from the dirt and I’ll tell you why,” Sparks noted.

After delving into his many accomplishments within the music industry and beyond, Sparks went on to note that he worked with XSET CEO and co-founder Greg Selkoe to do business with the popular esports organization FaZe Clan. Sparks went into detail about how things progressed from there – “we went over there and built the whole business model and started bringing in revenue, brought all the brands, and I got to work doing what I do best. And what I’ve done my whole career is getting people familiar, integrating them, and intersecting different genres seamlessly.” With big-time investors such as Pitbull & Swae Lee on board and a wealth of beneficial brands in tow, FaZe Clan reached new levels of success.

After Sparks and his business partners, Greg & Wil Eddins (who previously served as FaZe Clan’s Vice President Of Apparel/Special Projects), made the decision to start a new esports venture of their own, they teamed up with Framerate (an esports social video network) founder Marco Mereu to kickstart XSET.

XSET plays host to a wealth of talented pro players across games such as Valorant, Apex Legends, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six: Siege. Some of the more notable esports competitors associated with XSET include iDom (Street Fighter V), SuperEvan (Call of Duty: Warzone), Snood (Fortnite), and Arianarchist (Valorant). On the business partnership front, XSET works with the sports nutrition brand known as GHOST, a gaming furniture company called Respawn, fast food restaurant Wahlburgers, the controller customization brand known as Scuf, and the gaming peripheral company HyperX.

Sparks’ business savvy and vast knowledge of every corner of the entertainment industry have afforded him the opportunity to make major strides within the esports industry on behalf of XSET. The continued strides towards enhancing the esports organization’s clothing collection, company partnerships, pro player signings/team alignments, and social initiatives will surely push XSET further into the stratosphere. With his past accomplishments alongside FaZe Clan and his team of fellow industry shakers beside him, Sparks and XSET have everything they need in order to continue making major waves in the esports industry.

Once the topic of putting in the work comes up, AHAD provided an interesting anecdote when it came to time management. “Last year, I was streaming Valorant from day one,” he noted. “I was streaming from 6 pm to 6 am every single day. And I was clocking in 300 and something hours streamed every single month last year. I would sleep for two hours, go to work in the morning, I’d come back from work at like 2 or 3 pm, sleep for two hours, wake up again, quickly shower, eat something, then go live at 6 pm again every single day. That’s 12 hours almost daily for all last year starting in March.” To say that AHAD’s schedule is not for the faint of heart would be a severe understatement.

AHAD is known for hopping on Twitter to vent about Valorant’s Ranked mode. In a very vivid description of the sometimes infuriating game mode, AHAD stated that “Ranked is like an ex, bro. It’s like an emotionally abusive ex. I just keep going back every day for 10 hours a day. I’m trapped. I’m not even in love, bro. I got an illness.” AHAD perked up a bit more when he began speaking on women gamers and their affinity for communicating/not communicating during his Valorant sessions – “I think girls when they don’t comm, it’s totally cool. But you know what’s crazy is girls at the Immortal/Radiant level will always communicate. There is never an issue of using the microphone or typing ever. I’ve noticed I have lots of friends that are girls that play Valorant at lower ranks that don’t use their microphone or prefer not to. And I totally understand.” AHAD clearly understands the toxicity that girl gamers deal with in an online environment, especially when it comes to playing competitive games such as Valorant.

Due to the 2020 pandemic, gaming ended up becoming a central hobby for many as they chose to pass the time while under lockdown. After Aaron spoke on the societal realization that gaming is now an essential part of everyday living. AHAD spoke on the influence of gaming on the casual side of things by stating that it doesn’t really exist anymore – “there’s probably a Tweet I put out a long time ago, something along the lines of casual gaming is not really casual gaming anymore cause everybody wants to attempt to go pro or get a contract. So any piece of mind that you get from playing games is gone.” Aaron and AHAD have clearly run into a whole bunch more “sweats” these days that go just as hard as them when it comes time to grab some W’s in Valorant.

Make sure you sit in on the rest of AHAD’s lit conversation with Aaron “Don” Dukes on the latest episode of Inside the Screen. Their chat takes a deeper dive into Valorant’s Ranked match woes, his past streamed games, the flood of younger pro players entering the scene, and so much more.

Draynilla leaves his mark on the gaming sphere through his full-time Twitch streaming gig. And as a member of SoaR Gaming, his lively Apex Legends content is regularly showcased on an even larger scale. Thanks to his father and his love for gaming, Draynilla grew to appreciate it as much as him during his early days running and gunning on the Xbox 360. When Aaron speaks highly of his “demonic” Apex Legends skills and being surprised that he’s not a competitive player, Draynilla speaks on not being all that interested in going pro – “I sometimes think that maybe I could compete or do something like that, but to me, it’s just boring. I just like to run around in pubs (public games) and have fun. Just shoot people and game instead of trying to strategize, pick a position, hold it down, and sit here & shoot people as they come in. I like watching it, but for me I personally just like running around and having fun.”

Even before Draynilla’s passions for FPS games took shape, he became enamored with the Sega Genesis and its mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. Draynilla reminisced about his 16-bit glory days in full – “dude, I’d play like Sonic. I’d play like Judge Dredd.” And when the topic of grinding hard at games came up, Draynilla showed even more love to the “Blue Blur” – Sonic Adventure 2, bro! You remember that one where you’d like, grind the Chao’s and stuff like that? It was on the GameCube. I’d also play Super Smash Bros., too. Then I switched to Xbox 360 and started playing Halo. And that was the first game I really grinded. I used to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, too.” Back in the day, Draynilla was a traditional controller player. But now, he lights up the Apex Legends leaderboards through his expert mouse and keyboard skills.

When Aaron brings up one of Draynilla’s past tweets that tells his followers to stop comparing themselves to everyone else’s victories, Draynilla breaks it down from a content creator perspective – “Just be the best you. If you keep comparing yourself to people around you, you’re never going to appreciate what you actually do have. Just keep working on what works for you and brings you happiness rather than just focusing on what the other person brings and what works for them. Focus on what you got going for you. And if you can improve that every single day, you’ll be one percent better every day and just keep going.” A simple and concise statement such as that one should provide all the inspirational talk one needs to keep upgrading oneself at a steady pace.

Be sure to check out the rest of Aaron and Draynilla’s inspiring and hilarious conversation on the latest episode of Inside the Screen. You’re definitely going to want to watch as Draynilla reacts to his past tweets and reflects on one in particular that came to fruition in the form of a new Tesla.

It is a super exciting feature that we all can’t wait to see (and play) and to get you pumped, we spoke with beloved Philadelphia 76ers PA announcer Matty Cord about his involvement with the game. Cord spent five days earlier this year recording his parts for the game in Mission Hills, California, going back in July to do some final touch-ups, and like us, he can’t wait to see the final version. Below is our interview with the 76ers legend.

ONE37pm: What does the introduction of team announcers mean to you?

Cord: I’m over the top! P.A. announcers are such a big part of the experience, and we are talking all of the time during the games getting people involved. It’s really cool that 2K22 is capturing that essence, and it feels like you’re in your hometown arena. 

ONE37pm: As a legendary PA announcer we already know your prep game is intense. What was the prep like for 2K?

Cord: A lot of people don’t know this, but I do vocal exercises and singing scales. I do that in a room in the arena before games, and I make sure I have the pronunciation of the names down. I used to go into the locker room to do my vocal exercises, and one day Eric Snow came in and was like “You get to it!”