Editor’s Note: Upcomer is an editorially independent subsidiary of Enthusiast Gaming.
What does it take to be a pioneer in esports and gaming? Amanda Rubin has years of experience when it comes to epic gaming experiences. As Senior Vice President in Sales and Marketing at Enthusiast Gaming, she builds relationships and strategic partnerships while leading the way on what women in esports and gaming could look like today and in the future.
This is her story.
“They Always Made Me Princess Peach”
Rubin has always been a gamer. Growing up, she played the classics on the Nintendo 64 and left her four cousins and brother in the dust when they battled it out in Mario Kart and Mario Party.
However, one aspect of these play sessions always stood out to her; she rarely saw herself in the games she loved.
“I was always like, why is there one female character?” Rubin told Upcomer. “They always made me Princess Peach, which now, in hindsight, how wrong that was.”
When Rubin turned to another game like The Sims, she played with it for hours and hours after school. The game allowed her to customize characters as she saw fit.
Now she is a big fan of Hearthstone. The card game’s emphasis on strategy allows her to build her own decks and calculate her next move. It also reminds her of Magic: The Gathering, which her uncle taught her to play long ago — even before Rubin started working in the game industry.
“He taught me Magic: The Gathering,” Rubin said. “And so I loved Magic, and then… [I] fell off for years [then] I worked at EA. EA has Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes rolled out and I loved it so much.”
Rubin’s introduction to video games and her realization that women and girls are so underrepresented in the gaming and esports world is a well-known one; we are here, but we are invisible.
Breaking the ground for a brighter future for women in esports
According to research, about 45% of gamers in the United States are women.
For Rubin, championing DE&I initiatives is integral to building a brighter future for women in esports and gaming, and her background in media and advertising helps achieve that goal.
“From the agency to agency standpoint, and from brands to brands, there are always these opportunities for our fellow publishers on the sales side to come together, but not for the people on the other side — [the ones] those are the buyers who know about all the brand contributions,” Rubin said.
This insight sparked discussions about how Rubin and her team could bring women together to network and brainstorm initiatives that have real impact.
“I started talking to some of the others [women] on my team,” said Rubin. “I basically said, ‘I feel like we’re hitting a home run here by bringing together different women at agencies who’ve never had the continuous lines with each other – doing this in a way that enhances their careers, but also their ability to to do certain things that would otherwise be considered a male activity.’”
Rubin’s home run is this year’s Raise Your Game event. The opportunity to network in person has removed barriers and empowered women in gaming and esports.
She remembered the diversity of visitors to Raise Your Game; some had traveled all over the country to meet in New York City. There were women playing Fortnite, PC gamers trying out controllers, and attendees fighting a battle in Cards Against Humanity.
“It was a nice mix of a lot of different people working together and learning from each other,” Rubin said.
Assemble a team of champions
Rubin noted that she has worn many hats over the years. Her journey was anything but a vertical ladder. After sharpening her marketing, sales and publishing skills, she learned how to create and implement viable strategies based on the information available.
She then joined Enthusiast Gaming as Vice President of Sales, but that role was not typical. She had to assemble her own team of champions.
“So I came in with my three Ps: people, process and product,” explains Rubin. “When I joined Enthusiast Gaming, we didn’t even have a go-to-market deck; we didn’t have a fixed corporate rate card.”
Her first year with the company consisted of building out the organizational structure and infrastructure; in addition, she had to make sure Enthusiast Gaming had everything it needed to operate and sell a campaign.
“In gaming and in advertising I think in both, as a [woman]”You have to have hard skin,” said Rubin. “When I walked into an all-male leadership team at Enthusiast Gaming, I felt like it didn’t matter what I said, like I wasn’t the voice people wanted to listen to.”
“It takes courage.”
Rubin didn’t give in, though, because someone had to open the doors and break down the barriers.
“Sometimes women think, ‘I can’t do this because I’m not a man. I can’t apply for this job because it’s full of men,’ she commented. “It takes courage. And I think a lot [women] would realize that if they take that extra step, if they have the courage to apply for that job, to participate in that tournament, they will be welcomed with open arms.”
She added how people around her are actually saying they want more women, and one way women can contribute to that is by acting.
“Women need to be confident enough and have the courage to say, ‘I know I can be here and I want to be here,'” Rubin said.
Ahead of Women’s Equality Day this Friday, Enthusiast Gaming has launched Raise Your Game, a women-focused initiative created to create a community for underrepresented groups in gaming. More information: https://t.co/iOcbbAdxaz pic.twitter.com/rbeavORkWp
— Gaming enthusiast (@WeAreEnthusiast) August 24, 2022
“And so I think there should be… more people’s memories around women and motivation from other women to say; ‘You have this. You are as good as any man, if not better. This is your chance to prove them wrong.’”
Currently, Rubin continues to prove others wrong, encourage women and pioneer the esports and gaming worlds. She is setting up an internal resource group for employees at Enthusiast Gaming. This is done by working closely with the leadership team to develop the company’s DE&I initiatives.
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