Global
Esports Forum

Ralf Reichert is a man who has lived by the motto, “blaze your own trail.” A former soccer-player for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, the athletic young man turned to esports with his brothers and friends to found the now world-renowned esports organization, SK Gaming. Constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, Ralf’s vision of what the industry could (and should) be, is what has gotten the company so far. As a passionate gamer himself, Ralf is constantly striving to make esports as prestigious and recognized as ‘traditional’ sports.

Chris Hana is CEO of The Esports Observer (TEO), the leading source for esports business news and insights. Chris’s previous roles as Account Director at Fnatic and Co-Founder of Level99 have given him a unique perspective of the esports ecosystem from a team, agency, and analyst angle. Prior to his career in esports, Chris worked as a global project and program manager at Vodafone, one of the world’s largest Telco operators.

Torsten was appointed VP Global Media Rights and EsportsTV in August 2016. His new
established role is to create and package ESL esports products for TV broadcasters, Multi
Service Operators and Online platforms around the globe to bring esports to a new audience
with an entertaining and educating content portfolio. Before joining ESL, Torsten worked
eight years at German Sports TV Channel Sport1, where he was leading the program
department and the related content sales division as Program Director. In 2012 he started his
own media consulting company and created TV and Branded Content formats for national
and international clients. Recently he worked at Red Bull Media House in Salzburg, where he
build up an editorial department to run multiple sports and entertainment live shows for
their TV and Online Channels. He started his career as TV reporter at German News
Magazine „FOCUSTV“ in 2000, where he learned the handcraft of Storytelling.

Graham is a business journalist for The Esports Observer, the world’s leading source for esports business news and insights. His reporting primarily focuses on federations/associations, the ongoing conversation between industry stakeholders and the Olympic movement, and the growing influence of politics within the esports industry. He is also host of the TEO Podcast, a fortnightly discussion program that invites top leaders from the esports industry to discuss the accomplishments, opportunities, and challenges of the esports industry.

Frank J. Soqui is vice president and general manager of the Gaming Division, part of the Client Computing Group (CCG) in the Virtual Reality, Gaming and Esports group (VRGE) at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for defining and executing on CCG’s strategy for gaming, including optimizing client-to-cloud interaction in order to improve gaming experiences.
Before assuming his current position, Soqui was general manager for the Enthusiast Desktop business segment of the CCG, working on the gaming, VR, overclocking and community content creation and consumption segments. He has also represented Intel in many public appearances on major media networks, in TV commercials and at conferences where he has delivered many high level keynote speeches. His high profile work has been instrumental in the introduction of Intel VR to the general public and in communicating Intel’s VR strategies to the industry.
Soqui holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from DeVry Institute of Technology. In addition to his responsibilities at Intel, he is an executive member of the Immersive Technology Alliance, working to improve the viability, advancement and adoption of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, stereoscopic 3D and related future innovations.

Nicolas Besombes is a sports sociologist at the Paris Descartes University. Since 2012, its research work has focused on several areas: the players physicality in the competitive practice of video games, the esports institutionalization by public authorities and sport governing bodies and the diversification of esports audiences (gender, generational and inclusion of disabled people).
He is also the Vice President of the national association France Esports, the main contact of the government and the various ministries.
He is also the co-founder of the French Speaking Association for Esports Research and Studies.
Finally, he advises the Global Association for International Sports Federations (GAISF) on topics related to the Olympic Movement and esports.

After a 10-year career in brand communications, Nicola spent over five years at Riot Games, where she was leading global communication for Riot’s esports team and the most successful esports title in history. Nicola has given counsel and training to esports teams organizations worldwide. Named one of PR Week’s top Women in PR in 2015, she has managed communications around global events like the League of Legends World Championships which in 2017 was the most watched esports event to date with over 80 million unique viewers.

Michał Blicharz is the VP of Pro Gaming at ESL. Michał was in competitive judo for over 10 years before transitioning full time to the professional gaming industry. He was an award winning esports journalist before switching to ESL to run the Intel Extreme Masters in 2009. Since then IEM has gone from the corner of trade shows to major events in stadiums on four different continents, and helped change how we view esports today.

Michael is now working for over seven years with Nielsen Sports and its predecessor companies like Repucom and Sport+Markt. He served in several positions within the company and is now Head of Esport Europe. His goal is to support teams, brands and rights holders to make best decisions by using his experiences in combination with the relevant tools of media evaluation and market research. Also being a leading member of the consulting unit for many years, he gathered vast experience in working on countless projects for global brands, agencies, clubs and other rights holders.