 Good afternoon and welcome to our trailhead series in partnership with Illinois School Board of Education and the Illinois CTE project team. This afternoon we are going to be interviewing Miss Janelle Carter, who comes to us from the eSports world and that specifically relates to our information and technology career pathway. My name is Chavina Baker and I am the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Educator with the Northern Illinois, Illinois CTE project team. So this afternoon we are going to give students the opportunity to hear from Janelle, her experience and her career pathway. Janelle. Hi, thank you so much for having me here today Chavina. It's a pleasure to meet everyone. Like Chavina said, my name is Janelle Carter. I am a professional eSports player specifically for Tekken 7 and I am sponsored by Red Bull Gaming and Counter Logic Gaming and I have been a pro player for five years. Awesome. So where are you from, Janelle? Where did you grow up? So I grew up in Romeoville, Illinois. It's 45 minutes outside of Chicago and I was there for like 20 years. I lived there my entire life and I originally lived in the city. I lived in Chicago and then my parents moved us out to the suburbs for more opportunities and things like that and it's been great but now I live in Houston. And how's the weather there? I love the weather. Would not change a thing. I too would like to move south one day. What did you do after high school, Janelle? So what I did after high school was I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art and I went for, I think at the time it was game art, game art and design. And finished my first year, loved it but because of how expensive it was, I actually had to come back home after the first year and I had to get like credits at a community college before going to Northern Illinois University. So I still pursued like an art track but I had to take a different route. So I definitely had a longer college path because of that. So tell us about your job. What makes you most excited about it? Could you tell us a little bit about what it is that you do? Yes. So part of, a huge part of my job is traveling around the world, competing against other amazing players in my game, Tekken 7, and showing what my skill, representing my region. But along with that, I'm also a public speaker. I've been a host, commentator, a coach as well, a charity fundraiser, tons of different things that help represent my sponsors, the orgs I represent and what their mission is. So I'm representative of them. I'm also representing myself and helping to build my community. So kind of like as a leader and ambassador for fighting games and what that connects to. So in addition to information and technology, would you consider yourself an entrepreneur? Very much so. And a self-employed. Could you talk to me a little bit about that? Yes, I definitely am an entrepreneur and very self-employed. So because it's not a traditional 9 to 5, just for the eSports, in that it's still an evolving industry. A lot of the time you are creating your own hours, right? You are making your own schedule. You are deciding what you do have time for and what you don't opportunities-wise. Negotiating prices on different events and projects and wagering those things and also having a manager beside you to help you with that stuff. Because if you're the only one really maneuvering the space, it can get very overwhelming. So you always need somebody like a second-hand man, second-hand woman, whoever to like a right-hand man, right-hand woman to help kind of guide you because it's very stressful if you do it by yourself. So yeah, having somebody help you guide you. You're shadowing them as you are growing within the space. So it's definitely been a lot of trial and error and knowing what you're worth, right? Because as you work with more brands, you evolve over time, you get better at your job. You naturally will continue to kind of, you won't want to, you won't get paid the same. The longer the higher experiences and the longer you've been in the field and more brands you work with, the higher your pay will be. But you have to put your foot down. I think that's one of the biggest things in working in this space that I've learned is that you will not have the same price you had on what you do from when you started to now, especially five years in, six, seven, you know. So if I were to follow you for one day, you know, tell me what a day in the life of an professional e-sports player would be. What does your day look like? So a day in my life, especially during tournament season is, it could be three or four days of targeting different techniques I want to get better at. Studying opponent, studying footage of past tournaments where I have maybe done something right or did something wrong that I want to do better. I meet with my, over the week, I'll meet with my tech and coach. I meet with my mental performance coach. Sometimes I'll meet with a nutritionist. And then I meet with my therapist during the week as well. Because competing in general is very mental. And it's one of those things where you have to make sure your mind is prepared that you have those positive affirmations, that self-love, that self-worth, and you know you have it so that whenever you go into these tournaments, you are the most fierce version of yourself. I love that. Yeah, it's one of the biggest parts I think of studying and grinding as a pro e-sports player. But also exercising, that's a huge part of my life as well. Like every other day, I am working on my endurance. So I run, I exercise my core, and I now started doing a bit of strength training. And that also helps with performance as well. Because the tournaments are like marathons. They last sometimes two to three days. And for hours on end, right? So you have to have this crazy amount of focus in like six to seven hours. And the adrenaline is going up and down the entire time because you're like, oh man, here's the fight I got to do it. So all this prep I do outside of the game, hours on end every week, helps me for those moments. And this happens constantly for tournaments like every month. When tournament season starts, along with scheduling, speaking engagements, streaming and things like that. And those hours could look anywhere from like maybe 20 to 40. It just really depends on what the week looks like. Wow. Okay. So did you know that you wanted to do this when you were in high school? What were your dreams and aspirations when you were in high school? What did you think you were going to be? So what I thought was going to be in high school was a illustrator or a game artist or concept artist. That's what I thought that's what I had been doing since I was a child. I was the art kid. So when to high school, my art track was still that. Something I definitely smile at when I think about it is the fact that my dedication, regardless of the career path I was on, never changed. Because when I was studying art, it was the same thing. I wanted a first place ribbon. I worked for a first place ribbon for like different conferences and things like that. So when I was in high school, when the art students, the teacher would put their work in conferences and in contests and I worked really hard. I worked hours on end at night to get my concept the way I wanted with different mediums of art and I did. And so that was, you know, my parents and I, my whole family, we knew that was what I was going to do. So I graduated high school having went on an art track because they had classes and stuff. And then I went to college for all like five years, four and a half, five years. And I was still, I was funny, I was still playing, I was still playing when I could in college, but that that still wasn't my main focus but I did. I loved it as a hobby right that was my hobby. While art was my main focus, it was my career path I saw I kept on saying right. And by the time I got to Northern Illinois, I had changed my focus from game design at art to illustration conceptual work, not engaged. Nope. I just, I wanted to work on the 2d aspect. And so my specialty was color pencil. I, I love color pencil, the blending, the technique, what you can blend them with. I loved concept. I love making conceptual work. I loved thinking of something in my head, and that I can use my imagination to show people my world, my thoughts, my life, and my take on things. That's why I, that's so funny because that's what I love about art so much. And it's interesting because it translated so well to me competing, because your expression, how you express the way you play. You can do that with whatever character you pick in Tekken. There's like 40 characters, maybe a bit more, and there's a lot of them, right? But you can have eight people who use the same character, but they'll all use that character completely different because each character has so many different attacks and moves that allow you to kind of pick what you want. And you can find out kind of. Oh, okay. Yeah, so people are known for certain styles because of that. No exact player plays the same, and that's the beauty of it. And so I still kind of was able to still be able to express myself through that. It's still art, it's beautiful, it's competition is like an expression of art. It really is. So it's interesting how they still, I still marry each other. Yeah. Wonderful. So how were you introduced to pro esports? I was really introduced to it by, I feel like I would see it, I would see it on social media. So I'd see different genres of games. And they already had professionals in their games, but it looked very different for fighting games. It wasn't as developed as maybe like a shooter or another type of game. It was like, I mean, I've seen some players in Tekken get sponsored. I'm like, okay, but it seems so rare. The fighting games are a little more niche. But I guess as I continue to follow that path after I graduated college, I start to see a bit more people get sponsored because I know a few who did. And I was like, Oh, so then I got approached by Equinox gaming. And the woman who ran it, she, she approached me. I believe she sent me an email inquiring about if I was interested in being on their team. And I was with them for four happy years. Wow. Yeah, yeah, she, she really took me under her wing and she, she taught me how to advocate for myself. Know my worth, prepare me for business opportunities. She really taught me a lot. And she took me into her dreams because she cared. She knew I was worth that. She, she, she's one of my best friends and now she's my personal manager because she's she closed out Equinox. She wanted, she was done with that part of her life, did a lot to cultivate the players on her team. They're in good places. And now she's doing her own thing. And, but she's still my personal manager because she, she, she and I work very well together. So she's like my teacher. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, I'm so thankful to her. But one of my first exposures to pro esports definitely was because of her and being on a team as a sponsored player. I didn't really know what that looked like. Until she was sending me everywhere to show people like, you know, my skill and it helped me continue to grow and play against strong competition. It literally sharpened me. And she's the reason why I'm where I'm at. So, that's awesome. So for our students who will be watching this video, if I am a student and I'm sitting in my art class or I'm sitting in my CTE class and I am interested in doing what you do, what would be the advice that you would give them on how to get started in that industry. Yeah, so the advice I give to students who want to get involved in this, this industry. You're in luck because say if it's your last year, maybe you have like two years left maybe on, on high school or there's a lot of collegiate programs and clubs that exist sometimes in high school and in college that you can start preparing for you can start researching. They even have like competitive teams for different games for at the collegiate level so you can meet people through joining eSports clubs and and I think there's like minors and majors in different eSports programs like maybe like sports like being the physical aspect of it maybe at the science behind it. I've seen a lot of that with NIU actually. So there's that, but you can also, there's actually also, so from what I've seen, there are orgs that create like seminars or like workshops for aspiring students who want to come into the industry. So they hold like, like these little seminars that teach you how to maybe run a tournament or use certain programs, like to broadcast and things like that. So I think also researching them is very important like maybe if you type in, if you easily just go on Google or eSports seminar for making it a building or using a broadcast program, OBS things like that. So, or shadowing or studying a player or organization who is doing what you want to do. So a lot of time. I keep on saying Google, but Google, say there's a certain player that you really admire, right? And you want to know more about them or how they got there. There's so many articles usually about these, these people, these players, these influencers. If you type in, you know, this player and interview. Sit down and actually listen to how they got there. You'd be surprised how much you can get from somebody talking about their story where they came from how they got there. And it can give you a lot of guidance, a lot of insight. And so you're not feeling like you can't, you have no direction. You're seeing you're literally hearing somebody state how they got there. It's one of the things my mother recommended to me whenever I wanted to learn something or do something better. Or continue on the path I was on. Like, look at this artist. Look at what they're doing. Ask them questions, reach out. Do not be afraid to ask them questions. Send them direct messages, email them. They had business emails. We don't bite. We really don't bite. So one of the, one of the biggest things I'd say is do not be afraid to ask these people questions. Pick their brain. That's what I'd say. So that is amazing. And I will tell you that I did Google you before our interview and was very impressed with what you've done. You're talking about public speaking and really being a voice for, you know, young people who are pro esports players. What would you say to the young girls because we know historically that this is a male dominated field in most cases. So what would you say to young women who are in pursuit of this industry and being a pro esports player. Yeah, so what I'd say to the young girls who are looking to pursue this is um love yourself. Love yourself to the moon and back. I, there will be people who will want to put you in a box because they don't see people like us quite often at all. We are the minority a lot of the time in these spaces, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve to be there. It doesn't mean you don't deserve to pursue the path in the career that you want. Know that you are worth that. You forget that sometimes know that you can fill your own community your own spaces with people who respect you and love you and want to uplift you. You deserve that as well. Create those communities for yourself. Sometimes people look like us. These spaces don't feel like they're welcoming for us, but you know what we make them welcoming for us we make our own spaces within these. We force ourselves into these spaces because we deserve to see ourselves in the spaces that we love. So that's one of the biggest things I would say like also building community for yourself. What does your community look like and they're filled with some great people. Um, there are people who respect me they love me. That's a small group. I don't like my groups to pick, but some of those spaces are filled with, for example, my training partners, like my brothers, I've never had brothers, but they are my brothers. I've trained with them for many, many years. My coach, my second coach, all the coaches I named earlier. They are my community, my friends. Maybe they're not as competitive but like they're like just my gaming friends they're people that I bond with outside of Tekken people that you know I can unwind with and I don't have to be Janelle or cuddle the player all the time. And that's super important too. I have my boyfriend who used to be a professional Mortal Kombat player. So that's somebody who really understands the perspective fighting game world. Oh yeah, he did it for 10 years. Yeah, so he did a little on and off now but um, some you know people who get it people who even they don't like my family, my mom, my dad, my sisters, all of that. My community my Tekken community is that those matter a lot to me and that's what my community looks like people who really just love me for me understand the hard work are by my side whether I get the get the win or I don't get the win, but they're like me regardless. And when it's a tough time and you know maybe, or for example if I didn't do as good as I want to turn them into like yo, you've got it next time cuds, you've got it next time, like that kind of support the genuine support, regardless of a performance because they still know, you know, my mom says that you're the bag you know like that way you are special you deserve to be loved. It's great. It's top you know, pursuant to create your love can be hard. Being self employed being an entrepreneur can be hard but having a community who's got your back and ups and downs. Really makes it worth it and makes it easier to maneuver. That's amazing and I am so happy that you have that community that is so supportive. There are questions that I want to ask about essential skills. So in the world of career and technical education there are some competencies that students are expected to master. And some of those essential skills are things like communication, critical thinking skills, the ability to collaborate. What essential skills do you rely on heavily in your industry or in your career? You spoke a little bit about that earlier but specifically what do you think would be of benefit for students to know? Yeah, so some essential skills that I think are very important in an eSports or communication is huge. Being able to convey a thought, being able to sometimes answer clearly but quickly especially with media appearances and things like that. That's also a skill that can be taught to you which I've had some training in. But it takes some work but it's worth it. I also think collaboration like you said being able to work with others is really important. If you're being supported and sponsored by an org, it's not just like, okay, thanks for the sponsor and then you just go to tournaments, show up and play and that's it. And they just, you know, no, it's this working relationship where there might be events sometimes that you do with them or maybe you make content with them and being able to kind of express like, hey, okay, so this is the concept we're going for. Okay, we're going to talk to, we're going to make a YouTube video about how to pick a character in Tekken. That takes collaboration because it involves you being there, being present, but also being able to have a nice script to go off of when you're talking in this video and kind of delivering what your organization wants. Like that's a whole thing. I also do think that time management is a massive skill that like people don't think about it when you're self-employed. Like when you're, you know, when you're coming out of high school, it's not something you're thinking about. That's totally fine. But I can tell you right now, start working on your time management in high school if you haven't, because it will be essential for you in the long run and you're in college and beyond. And I will say this because nobody's holding your hand telling you when to answer an email or when to train for something or when to start putting together a budget for a tournament. Nobody is going to hold your hand for that. If you are the lead or the head of something, you need to know within what time limit, what time range, this needs to be delivered or you need to be done with this. Because didn't you experience burnout if you don't know how to time manage? You look up, you procrastinate, procrastinated so much that now you have all this work to do with a very small deadline. So I think that as well is important and problem solving. A problem solving is a very big one for essential skills because, because eSports is still an evolving industry. Certain paths are still being explored. The blueprints aren't fully there for a certain career paths. So for example, say if your team is starting to downsize and they need to start cutting people. And you're like, well, like didn't see that coming. Okay. What are you going to do? What do you have problems? All right. So do you have your resume? Do you have connections? Do you have a network of people you can reach out to to inquire about other orgs that are looking for players or staff or content creators or graphic designers, things like that. That's problem solving because anything could happen anytime. But right now there's literally like cuts happening to massive parts of staffs for gaming journalism and things like that. So you always kind of have to be always have to have other options. You have Plan B, Plan C, Plan D when you're dealing with an industry like that always be prepared regardless of the space be prepared. Yeah, those I think are some really big ones. Those are excellent ones and thank you so much for sharing those. Do you know how do you celebrate your successes? Oh man, Shaveena the fact that you asked that is so wonderful because I'm literally going through this right now. I'm actually going through it. Like, and I will talk about yeah. So how I celebrate myself right that's the question. Mm hmm. And the successes and yes. To be honest, I wasn't as good with it. Maybe like a year and a half ago two years ago. But so I learned how to celebrate myself by every time I did something that was a milestone or something that I knew took a lot of energy and work to do. I did the things like self care right. So I started to get my nails done all the time and so it's like a ongoing thing for me. When I get my feet done, get the massages, you know, something to distress me while also buying something that maybe I wanted, like maybe clothing or some sort of streaming equipment or a game that I've loved, or food. Food is one of my biggest love languages of being able to eat communion with people and all that. And I love a great meal. Because if it's something that it really had a craving for I'll sit down and I'll buy that for myself like seafood, and I'll watch a movie and I'll just decompress and sit there just like yeah this is the stuff you know it's great. And I start to do gratitude journals, things where you, you appreciate the things that happen every day right but also the hard work that you put in. Something that I do a lot is in celebrating is I make tweets and posts on my different social media channels to talk about the great thing that I did because I'm so proud and I want to share it with my community. And that has been very rewarding to because it doesn't not only not only shows how proud you are of yourself, you can share that with the community but also gives you exposure. And because there's so many people that on social media looking, you don't know who's watching right. So, those are some great. So some ways for me that I felt like have heavily affected me in a positive way in celebrating my success and saying good job had my back and in celebrating with the people I love. I remember I came back from a tournament once. Last year, it was in Illinois and I had made top eight and I had my shiny metal and I felt like I was really coming into another aspect of growth with my gameplay like I really push it up like yeah so this was a really big deal I love my performance that I was very satisfied and that I'm saying that often for as a competitor because I'm like never enough. But I came home, my boyfriend was here and he took me out to go get seafood, and that was just so fun for me because I was, I was new to Houston. I just came back from my first tournament after moving out of my parents house and being able to celebrate with someone I love. I'm giving him my my big metal and having able to eat with him and talk with him and how proud he was of me that meant the world to me so yeah I definitely think I'm celebrating pretty, pretty decent trying to do things to amp it even more but yeah. Good. And how do you use all of those wonderful things that you just told me to bounce back from your failure. So, how do I use celebrating my success to bounce back from failure. So, I think for me when when I don't do as well as I want, or maybe I get rejected from something I was trying to apply for, like an award or like an opportunity. And it'll hurt and I'm like, man, I tried really hard for that. But then I'm like well, I think about how when I do get the wins. It's because I was tenacious. I was dedicated and I am. I'm persistent, I will not give up. And the reward becomes then I finally do ultimately get what I'm looking for because I fought for it, but not because it wasn't because I gave up. You know, you can't sometimes you won't be able to get what you want. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to ultimately achieve that goal. And it's not supposed to be easy. Sometimes the best things in life are not easy, especially when it's something you love, which means it takes a lot of work, especially if you're trying to get better and better at it. But then I always think about what lies on the other side of that when you push so hard that you do then achieve and then you get to reward yourself because you hung in there because you knew it was worth it. So that's really how I bounce back because I know that it takes a couple of tries. Nobody's supposed to be perfect. But as you continue to learn from each loss or failure, you are like, okay, I know how to do this better now. Okay, I'm not going to fall for the same thing twice. Okay, got it. All right. So but a couple of tries and you're like, okay, I got this. Like you have to be exposed to that stuff so that you, you know, you're not supposed to be perfect. But it's so that you learn to do better next time. And so then you keep on going and going by the time you don't even think about the failure or what happened before, because you're already improving. Yeah, you're already improving by the time that failure happens because you're right back on it, but you got to let it, you got to let yourself feel it for a second like I'm disappointed. That's okay, because that perseverance for you to get better because you experience the failure. So then you can experience the win again. And it has to happen. People have to allow themselves to experience the cycle of failure, the growth or the loss, the growth, then the win, then the celebration, I guess it's like a four-point thing, but yeah. Excellent. So closing out, I want to nugget, you know, I want to know what is something that most people may believe about your job. I think that they have no idea. Tell me something that someone doesn't know about being a pro eSports player. I think a lot of people on the outside, still, I mean, even with people knowing about gaming now, it's a lot more common mainstream than it was like maybe 10 years ago. But a lot of people still assume from the outside that it's just us playing a game. It really isn't. I, something that people don't know is that I think it should be, it's about the same as being a traditional athlete with the amount of time, energy and work that goes into building your body as a temple to succeed. It's the same with eSports. It actually is the same thing. It might even be a little more strenuous if you're depending on the game, especially if it's a 1v1 game compared to a team game. Sometimes the approach is different. There's a lot of layers to it. But yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is that people think it's just you're playing, but it's not. There's so much more that goes into it. So much energy, so much time, so much mental work to grow your mental fortitude. It's so mental. There's so much power in it, but it takes work and it's a grind. So it's never just playing games because if that was the case, I think we'd have a lot more problems then. Because mental health would then be in effect, I think. So I think that's something that I hear a lot from people on the outside who, they think, oh, you know, you playing the game. That's gotta be gorgeous. Travel playing the game. I said, I mean, it's a part of it, but it's all the work that goes into it. And then I have other parts of my job that I still have to do, like being a whole representative for my organization. That are my sponsors. I still, I still have so many other things I do outside of it, which is what traditional athletes do too, things that they care about, things that they love, outside of just playing or competing. Like charities, fundraisers, coaching, educating, aspiring players who are coming up, you're trying to build your community because there's still leaders, a lot of them are leaders. For a lot of them, it's not just about the game. They want to use that, that exposure, that brand to give back. So it is so much more than just sitting down and playing. It's a huge part, but so much that goes into it. I have learned so much today. And I am so very grateful that you took this afternoon to speak with me about your passion because that truly is a passion for you. And I think when you are passionate about something, you're absolutely walking in your purpose. So I appreciate the time that you've taken with me. I appreciate you reaching, you know, reaching back because as I stated, this video will be seen by students sitting in classrooms who just might be aspiring to be a pro eSports player as well. So I thank you for taking the time out to meet with me today. Oh, it's definitely no problem at all. I'm so glad that I got to do this with you and sit down. I care a lot about being able to give some of my advice or like insight with how I got here. And I think with students who might be aspiring to be in this position. I want them to know like, there are, here's some things that you can do starting now you have time. And because of where we are with eSports now, especially with it being in the collegiate level now too. Students are just they're set up for such great things because of it. It wasn't like that like seven years ago when I was like it wasn't like that five to seven years. I'm not in school either. No, and so it's a beautiful thing so me being this position now and being able to like give a little bit of insight about my journey, my story, my advice I can give. I'm so excited for the students who will be like the next generation of people with eSports and I just I want to help I want to get back so Thank you so much for having me.