Industry week

Mark Weller: As Chief Gaming Officer at Vexed Gaming and Esports England Team Manager, Mark Weller has played a pivotal role in driving esports growth and performance on the global stage. He also led Team England to a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games and managed the prestigious Mercedes AMG Petronas Esports Team.

Ray Law (aka bo0): World champion Street Fighter player and founder of Eleven Nexus, Ray Law is a wellness innovator transforming individual health and workplace wellbeing through initiatives like the Eden Initiative. As CEO of moneyappi, he is leading global change in financial literacy and resilience with cutting-edge technology.

Leyna McQuillin (aka Affinity): Esports host and play-by-play caster who has worked with esports giants such as Electronic Sports League (ESL) on their ESL Impact events, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), EPIC.LAN, Fragdelphia and many more. Leyna has paved her own way into the esports industry and now stands as one of the many individuals who aim to make the esports industry more inclusive for all. 

Luke Seagrove: Esports and Gaming Executive at Alpine Formula One Team. While at university Luke ran and was a part of the team which brough you the inaugural season of the Alpine Esports Community Cup. After finishing his studies at Staffordshire University, he continued with Alpine Formula One Team and became responsible for partnerships, in-game licensing, PR and Web3. Luke’s insight into the industry is remarkable and his talk will provide our students with priceless knowledge. 

Kurtis Ashton: Our very own alumni! Kurtis graduated from Burnley College in 2023, and since then, he has gained valuable industry experience that they are happy to share with the current students of the college. Some projects that Kurtis worked for was being a caster for Riot Games’ very own ‘Riot Play Club’ as well as host 3 EPIC.LAN’s, most recently appearing on the EPIC42 stage. His recent accomplishment is appearing on BBC to interview the creator of ‘StaffsVerse’, which is a recreation of the University of Staffordshire’s Stoke campus in the game called Fortnite. His experience of going from a Burnley College student to BBC and individuality will make for a great session for our students to gain valuable insights into the esports industry and beyond. 

Benito Marlay: Benito has a background in Drama for television and theatrical performances, he can envision how a broadcast will look on screen and in person which can often get overlooked. In Esports, Benito specialises in the experience of an event. Making sure that whoever decides to tune in or turn up has a good time. He has done almost every role from executive producer, management, photography and videography, directing and stage management. He mainly works on the production side either as a producer, front-of-house or stage manager; but Benito is also happy to slot into any role learning quickly on the job. Currently, he works as the Production Team Lead at EPIC.LAN. Making sure that the streams and the people running them are well looked after. Benito's experience is beneficial for our students to enable them understands the ins and outs of the esports industry and manging esports events.