Slasher talks growing up playing games and the industry

In our conversation with esports consultant Rod 'Slasher' Breslau, he spoke to his change in tastes, as well as what upcoming games he's watching both personally and professionally.

TJ Denzer

July 28, 2020 5:26 PM

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Games have changed a lot over the decades that the relatively young industry has been around. If you’re working in them professionally, playing, coverage, or otherwise, it takes adaptation to understand what you’re talking about both inside and outside the game. It should come as no surprise that one who dubs themselves the #1 esports consultant like Rod “Slasher” Breslau not only knows this, but stresses that other professionals in the industry have every reason to work to understand it as well.

We spoke to Slash on a myriad of topics during a special E4 Summer of Doing Our Jobs edition of Wide World of Electronic Sports. One of the subjects that came up was what upcoming games Slasher himself is keeping his eyes on as both a professional and a consumer. This brought on a discussion about what Breslau believes is important to consider when working as a professional in the gaming space, not only paying attention to games, but also playing them enough to understand and talk about them.

It should come as no surprise that Rod has his eyes on a lot of what Riot is doing with games like League of Legends, Valorant, and the fighting game that they are working on. He makes mention of the fact that due to the nature of his business, he’s somewhat become disinterested in single-player games and the Marios of the industry to focus in on mostly competitive games. However, in that conversation, he also brings up that it’s important to his work to see and understand these games thoroughly so that he knows what he’s saying when he talks about them: a factor that he holds his contemporaries to, especially when they attempt to gatekeep the industry without knowledge of their own field.

Want more? Be sure to check out the full interview for other interesting insights, as well as following our YouTube channels at Shacknews and GamerHubTV for other interviews and videos on games, toys, and more.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.