The E-Sports Championship (ESC) was started in 2010 by Drekken Pownz. It initially was a subsidiary of Pownz Gaming Centre, a console LAN cafe that was based out of Hamilton, Ontario.
The first iteration of the e-Sports Championship was intended to be a cross-Canadian circuit, which held a lot of promise. However, the closing of Pownz Gaming Centre froze the competition in its tracks.
Deciding that it was far from over, Drekken recruited a new team of awesome individuals to tackle the challenge of building amazing eSports entertainment.
Retooled and restructured to allow players a chance to showcase not only their skills but also their identities and personalities, the new e-Sports championship focuses on one thing, telling the story of e-Sports and its players..
The history of ESC continues with you.
Derek has been playing video games since his father bought him an NES for his birthday (Derek suspects his father secretly wanted to play it himself and a birthday was a good excuse to spend the money) and has been hooked ever since! Playing games became more than just a hobby, it was a passion.
Naturally Derek dreamed of getting a job in the gaming industry. Derek went to school for Software Engineering, dreaming of becoming a game developer. Along the way he realized programming wasn't enough and wanted a more active career in the gaming industry. Together with his life long pal Drew Matthews he founded Tanag.tv, dedicated to producing and streaming a variety gaming content online.
Initially just interested in improving his Starcraft II skills, Derek became fascinated with the eSports scene and culture after attending MLG for the first time. Since then, Derek has attended many Starcaft II tournaments, travelling hundreds of miles to attend MLG and NASL, which led to a desire to start casting. He started organizing amateur tournaments which he casted and streamed online. In 2012 Derek joined the ESChamp team as a main Starcraft II caster and has loved every minute since. Derek hopes you will continue tune in and cheer your favourite players on!
Zoran has been playing some version of Starcraft since 1999. Starcraft is so much more than a game, more than a hobby - it's a state of mind. Zoran's depth of knowledge and zeal for everything Starcraft has brought him into the world of exciting analytic casting style supported by maintaining a high level of play reaching Master's League with all races.
In his 3 years as a Esports Caster, Zoran has been involved with a variety of different events both online and at LAN events. Zoran's all-encompassing esports resume includes play-by-play announcing for the Sticky Flames and ESChamp, as well as coaching and streaming for fun games, show matches and anything else esports. With future goals of being the voice of Canadian Starcraft he would implore you to continue to watch, interact, and have fun on stream.
Drekken Pownz is a plucky young entrepreneur from Hamilton, Ontario where he originaly started ESCHAMP in 2009.
Once filled with aspirations to be a professional warcraft 3 player turned his passion to esports into his drive to create ESCHAMP a canadian esports broadcasting company.
When he isn't plotting to rule the world he can be found playing Jarvan on League of legends or Protoss on Starcraft, some say he can be found on occasion cosplaying as various Anime & Sci-fi characters and plays a mean game of Baduk( or GO).
Jason Murray has been in love with video games since he played Bionic Commando when he was two-and-a-half.
During his high school years in Scarborough, Ontario he loved entering Dance Dance Revolution and fighting game tournaments.
Since he began working with Drekken back in 2007 he has been focusing more on a career in the e-sports world, combining his love for video games with his love of competition.
He actively engages in many aspects of nerdism (including Warhammer and D&D) and firmly believes that no matter what, you should do what you love and love what you do.
I'm not really super great at video games, I mostly just enjoy playing games with my pals, and watching big Starcraft tournaments. My favourite colour is purple, I'm a cancer, and I'm afraid of spiders and band-aids. I signed on to this project cause it seemed like a fun idea, and I want to help turn e-Sports in Canada into more of a sellable product.
A gamer since birth, Taylor has enjoyed everything video games since he could hold a controller. Originally owning a NES, he's been a long time Nintendo fan boy, owning every one of their home consoles to date with the exception of the Super Nintendo; something he plans to correct one day.
After years as an online gamer under the alias 'Warchamp7', Taylor eventually stumbled upon the live stream scene in its infancy. Taking an early interest, he began learning the ins and outs of the burgeoning industry, and has followed its explosive growth up to today. Being a competitive player himself, it was practically unavoidable that he would become not only a huge fan of eSports, but would get involved with them as well.
Now in charge of the website for one of the best consumer-level streaming applications, and with past experience in video production, Taylor is our lead member when it comes to all things technical and producing the best quality live stream.
© 2013, ESChamp
