Video Games Takes Student to South Korea

This COSmic Knight took an opportunity that landed him halfway across the globe.

Radio and television major, Justin Wilson, got his big breakthrough playing video games. He played video games professionally while at UCF from 2010-2012 and frequently participated in tournaments and competitions. In 2012, he retired from playing professionally but kept up with the competitions and culture. During a new competition called CSL, Justin made a connection with his future co-caster, Alex Kim. Keeping up with his contacts proved to come in handy because after just a few short months, Justin was presented with a job opportunity – the only catch: it was in South Korea.

The position was to be an Esport broadcaster in South Korea. Esports, or electronic sports for short, is an emerging new medium that focuses on playing competitive video games in a similar manner that you’d play a sport professionally. Some have compared it to extreme sports or MMA. Like traditional sports there are teams, sponsors, training regiments, tournaments, fans and so on. Esports heavily dominates the 18-25 male market and is already a 400+ million dollar industry that has no signs of slowing down. As an Esport broadcaster, Justin was a commentator and attended most events.

Moving on a whim to South Korea was difficult for Justin. He didn’t understand the language, the culture or have any friends that lived there. This proved to be a learning experience where he was forced to grow and adapt to his environment. He had to be financially independent while living in South Korea for the past year and a half, and used this time to develop responsibility and blossom into an adult.

Justin hasn’t always been so ready to take risks, in fact, he was very shy in high school and didn’t find a community to truly accept him until he came to UCF. Making new friends and putting yourself out there is a big part of the college experience and it gave Justin an incredible opportunity. In the future, Justin just plans to keep up with his grades, hit the gym and become more involved in the UCF community. He’s back on campus this spring.

Stay COSmic, Justin!