The Effect of Local Communities Embracing Esports Culture
Premier Sports Academy is an organization entwined in small town culture. It has proud ties to many regions across Missouri, actively seeks to make new connections and respects each city’s uniqueness. The ties that PSA athletes and staff have with their local communities are responsible for PSA’s diversity and its adaptability when challenges arise.
Call of Duty World Champion, Matthew “Burns” Potthoff, shares some of the same core values which are rooted in his hometown experience in St. Charles, MO. Burns grew up playing Call of Duty and the Halo series, and shared in an interview that he had “the best” high school experience because everyone around him shared the same passion for these gaming titles.
Burns reflected on the growth of esports in the St. Louis area since his childhood, praising the city for diversifying its interests and catering to more in person gaming events. Specifically, he noted the efforts of Maryville University and their annual Involvement Fair. “The right people seem to be pushing the needle– if the cards fold our way we will have a great market”, Matthew said.
Creating a strong gaming culture can be a difficult task in a booming city, where there are ample opportunities to attend professional sports games, enjoy city life or partake in other forms of entertainment. However, Burns depicted St. Louis as the perfect environment to continue sharing the professional esports agenda. Burns said, “In St. Louis we have the potential to be an extremely strong secondary esports market. Everyone plays video games and there’s not much to do outside of going to a blues or cardinals game”. He mentioned St. Louis alongside cities with rapid growth in the esports industry such as Los Angeles, CA and Dallas, TX.
Premier Sports Academy has played a significant role in pushing the envelope in the St. Louis area and giving the community a strong gaming culture to celebrate. Burns explained that he was only recently introduced to co-founder of PSA, Matt Meier, but almost immediately began to recognize ways to bring value to Meier’s “awesome ideas” and “strategic hires”. With 13 years of experience in professional esports as a player, coach and manager, Burns emphasized his strengths in creating leadership, teamwork, communication and other intangible skills for the youth athletes at PSA. Burns said, “Anything that gives value to kids now and in the later stages of life–that is our focus”. Premier Sports Academy and its ever-growing family, continues to help its teams grow as both athletes and individuals.
About Premier Sports Academy:
Premier Sports Academy (PSA) is an organization that provides individualized training to dedicated athletes based on their goals. From its conception, as a data-driven player-first approach to coaching baseball athletes, PSA has expanded into various other sport markets including, softball, golf and esports. Since 2020, the organization has helped over 170 athletes pursue collegiate athletes totaling over $7 million in scholarships. For more information, please visit Premier Sports Academy’s website and sign-up to receive updates and announcements.