This week Twitch Partner Streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys announced that she is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of RTS, a new talent management firm. In March of this year RTS became joint owner of the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) fighting game tournament alongside Sony. As co-founder and CCO, Pokimane is legally part-owner of the premier fighting game tournament. As of this time it is unknown if Pokimane will become involved with the operation of EVO.
RTS is a talent management and brand marketing firm. According to the website, the company aims to work with creators, brands, and game publishers to “make a long-term impact across the gaming industry”. The website currently lists Pokimane herself as the only content creator working with the company. The site also lists PlayStation, Riot Games, Epic Games, and PUBG as game publishers that RTS is working with. Facebook and Ballantine’s are among the list of brands partners for RTS.
Pokimane has faced criticism in the past for an incident where she sent her audience after smaller content creators, and used the copyright claim system to have videos that were critical of the 26-year old streamer taken down. Pokimane backtracked on these actions after receiving backlash.
EVO started in 1996 as the “Battle by the Bay” and over the following years has grown into the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, and one of the largest gaming events. This year the Evo Online 2021 event replaced the in-person tournament. As a result of the purchase this year, all of the games featured were on PlayStation consoles. EVO has claimed that the Sony ownership will not affect the presence of non-PlayStation games at future tournaments, however at this time it remains to be seen if that will be the case. No details about next year’s EVO have been announced at this time, and it is yet unknown to what extent if any RTS and Pokimane will be involved.
GameTama 