If, as some say, time is a person’s most precious resource, then it’s quite the honor to have a chance to speak with SoaR Dazs, the General Manager of SoaR Gaming.
Between his role with SoaR, his stream schedule (he puts in more than 20 hours a week), Apex Legends scrim matches, his regular YouTube uploads, spending time with his fiance and his day job, it’s a near-miracle he has time to talk the TheGamer.
“There's no way I can keep up this momentum forever, where I'm working the day job, SoaR Gaming, and then streaming like all at once,” he says. “The only reason I feel like I'm able to do is that I'm relatively young, for now.”
Still, it’s a strategy that’s paid off for him thus far. Though he lives in Manhattan, which is historically one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, he and his fiance own a home Tennessee.
“It took years and years of grinding, hard work, and just juggling situations like this,” he says.
Of course, streaming is the quintessential work-from-home job. Save for a few outliers, few professional streamers and video game players are in a hurry to move to big cities that require a high cost of living. Dazs ended up in New York for a completely unrelated reason.
“I came here for musical theater,” he shares, explaining how he even managed to land a role in the Broadway production of Wicked. “Even though the money was decent, I came to a roadblock. I was like, man, I should just do YouTube, streaming and this stuff, more full time.”
“I guess I can say I'm not really disappointed,” he adds.
Dazs On His Transition From Battlefield to Apex Legends
Though he now competes in Apex Legends, it was Dazs’s Battlefield montages originally inspired interest from professional organizations. He was, and continues to be, a notable name in the Battlefield scene, which led him to develop relationships with people within Battlefield game publisher Electronic Arts.
Still, while he was busy with Battlefield V, a friend of his clued him into a forthcoming game that was “really going to shake things up.” The friend, who had play-tested it, was unable to say anything more without violating a strict non-disclosure agreement.
Like so many others, it wasn’t long before Dazs found himself hooked on Apex Legends.
Still, when you’re a player known for playing a specific game, the choice of whether to experiment with new games doesn’t come easily. At the moment, Apex Legends has significantly more mainstream interest than the Battlefield series, which presents a much wider audience. However, a streamer who makes a big transition risks becoming a smaller fish in a bigger pond, which can lead to them losing subscribers and even endorsement deals.
“At some point, I was like, ‘You know what? I really have to focus on me. I have to focus on my own creative drive,” he says. “I need to go into something like Apex that has a larger audience.”
The State Of The Apex Legends Competitive Scene
Apex Legends won Best Multiplayer Game at the 2019 Game Awards and Online Game of the Year at the DICE Awards. With Respawn having recently opened a Vancouver office and projecting a 10-year run for the game, it’s clear the company plans to support the game for the foreseeable future. And, while Respawn is investing in Apex Legends as an esport, there are questions as to how it may fare among other competitive games. But Dazs is optimistic.
“I feel like I have a lot of insight in terms of Apex competitive because I feel like it's a scene that can really go really, really far,” he says.
He points out that big organizations such as 100 Thieves and FaZe haven’t invested in the game’s competitive scene. And, perhaps in part due to his role with SoaR, he can look at it realistically from a business perspective.
“If we're gambling on a team in terms of the performance, how can they guarantee that they're going to win?” he says, pointing out the nature of the battle royale format that puts 20 teams side-by-side in a single match.
But he points out that Apex Legends has, on the whole, attracted older players who tend to be more mature than some of the competitive Fortnite players. For him, this signals more sustainability as a competitive game. Plus, it helps that the Respawn team remains continually committed to improving the game.
“I think the current season is probably the best that it’s ever been, to be quite honest. I think that Apex is really nailing a lot of things,” he says.
The development team’s commitment becomes integral for any game as it continues to build a competitive scene.
“I think that organizations like SoaR will continue to invest and really care about the future of this game as long as the developers are still also invested in its future,” he says.
Dazs's Advice For Players Who Want To Join Professional Organizations
The health of the scene is also contingent upon the creators who support it — many of whom are gunning for an opportunity to represent an organization like SoaR. But signing with an organization isn’t always as simple as being a strong player, though that certainly doesn’t hurt. Dazs points to iiTzTimmy as an example.
“I saw him, I was like, ‘Man, this guy's gonna blow up.’ Why is that he was still on regardless of whether there was 20 or 30 people watching, or if there's what he has now, 500?”
For those players hoping to get signed with an organization, Dazs has some solid advice.
“You don't really focus on trying to get recognized. You really just focus on your craft and focus on growing your own platform and your own brand,” he says. “I always tell people by the time a team is ready to pick you up, you don't necessarily need the team anymore.”
SoaR Dazs is a Twitch Partner and is the General Manager of SoaR Gaming.
Check out TheGamer’s full interview with SoaR Dazs and listen to all episodes of Pexin’ with the Legends, TheGamer’s Apex Legends podcast.