Meet the Man Who Went From Gamer to Esports CEO

It’s seven weeks into this year’s Esports World Cup, the world’s biggest international video game competition, but CEO Ralf Reichert doesn’t appear tired at all. Sipping a cappuccino inside the VIP embassy of Paris’ Expo Porte de Versailles, the former pro gamer-turned-entrepreneur is entirely at ease. After all, he’s not one of the over two thousand people competing. Those days are long behind him.

“We would pack a car and bring our own computers and the big CRT monitors,” Reichert tells Rolling Stone . “There was a tournament here in Paris called LAN Arena. It was in 1999 and 2000; we rented a bus, packed it, and came here with a whole team of six people and spent the weekend. I think we won both times, actually.”

Today, it’s all very different. Reichert has traded in his keyboard and mouse for a coveted gig as the head of one of the largest video game organizations on the planet with the Esports Foundation. In the quiet lull of a midday break between tournament play, he’s able to unwind and bask in the entirety of all he’s accomplished in his quarter century in esports. What once was an underground group of hobbyists pursuing their passion has now become a global spectacle, with players competing across 24 games for a prize pool of $75 million.

The third iteration of the annual summer event was originally set to be hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, like its predecessors, but geopolitical circumstances required a shift, leaving Reichert and his team with a pivot to Paris in just over eight weeks. The Herculean undertaking of the international swap is impressive enough, before ever factoring in that the Paris venue itself needed to be a perpetually shifting mosaic; with the entire show floor turning over weekly as new tournaments and activations traded in.

But Reichert is no stranger to manning the helm of a ship in unsteady waters. A pioneer of professional gaming before the concept was ever a viable job, he co-founded SK Gaming with his brothers, Benjamin and Tim, back when the internet was just in its infancy. What began as a personal competition between his siblings would eventually lead to an unconventional and boundary-shattering career. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Raised in Oberhausen, Germany, Reichert’s passion for gaming started early. Like many, his early years were predicated on an insatiable need to best his siblings. “I have two brothers; we competed in everything,” he says. “Football was our main turf, but [it was] everything you can think of, as well as video games. I had my first console at the age of six, and we would compete in Pong .