Exploring Life & Business with Sunny Yen of UCLA Gaming

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sunny Yen.

Hi Sunny, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up, I was always very into sports. I grew up playing hockey and basketball in high school and even had dreams of playing professionally at different points. Circumstances outside of my control ended that dream, and for a while, I kind of wandered searching for something to throw myself into. Esports for me began because I wanted to find a way to feed my competitive edge, and I quickly came to love it for the community it immediately placed around me and the passion of those who participated which emulated mine. I took that passion into college, unsure what I wanted to do with my life, but knowing I wanted to be involved in video games somehow someway. In my junior year of college, I realized that, more than anything, I wanted to share my experience with others and provide avenues for my peers to enjoy competitive esports in the same way I do. From there, I founded UCLA Esports, a student organization supporting competitive esports athletes. I was convinced that this is what I wanted to do in the foreseeable future with my career when we grew from just myself and 2 of my friends to a student staff of 20 in 2 short months. Today, we are fully integrated into the UCLA Club Sports system, operating our own 17-computer training facility, partnering with major brands, and improving the esports ecosystem. After I graduated in 2019, UCLA Recreation hired me full-time to continue building this project, and I have been here ever since.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think the biggest struggle I have had that oftentimes, unfortunately, carries over into my work is I am just so excited to do so many things. I meet with my students often and we discuss a lot of different ways we can ameliorate our program. For example, we are in the process of beginning a new student initiative on marginalized genders in gaming caller Gamers without Labels, and while it is absolutely a worthy cause and I want to support it, I am now balancing it with another initiative called Bruin Broadcasting, which focuses on training and teaching live broadcast and show production for esports and traditional sports. So it really has just been a constant battle of running around, balancing the budget, and negotiating and allocating resources.

Even though UCLA Esports, Bruin Gaming, our social gaming initiative, Gamers without Labels and Bruin Broadcasting are all initiatives that are absolutely integral to my program, I am still trying to find that perfect balance of how we can maintain all of them at the highest level possible. I think we’re currently in our limit testing phase, trying to find what works and what doesn’t. And taking risks like that will always lead to moments of struggle. However, in the end, there is no doubt in my mind it will make our program more complete, accessible, friendly, scholastically supportive, and stronger!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
UCLA Gaming is a unit within UCLA Recreation that is focused on developing avenues of competition, career development, scholastic learning, community, and advocacy through the art form of video games. The most prominent public-facing arm of our organization is UCLA Esports. UCLA Esports supports 80 student-athletes across 10 video games, calling the John Wooden Center Esports Training Facility their home. They complete in tournaments nationally and represent UCLA on the biggest college esports stages. Behind them are some of the brightest students in college at UCLA, managing logistics, travel, fundraising, social media marketing, media production, event management, and more.

I am incredibly proud of UCLA Esports, and many of our staff members and players go on to internships or full-time careers at Riot Games, T1, Cloud9, Team Liquid, and more. Alongside UCLA Esports is Bruin Gaming, a social gaming club and hub for students to share their passions for video games and find friends. Pre-pandemic, we were up to 2,000 active members but are currently rebuilding! Bruin Broadcasting, our completely in-house live production team dedicated to teaching UCLA students the art of broadcast. And Gamers without Labels, our initiative to make gaming a friendly, safe and accessible space for those who identify as a member of the marginalized gender community. Our ultimate goal is always to making gaming safe, accessible, and empowering for any and all to achieve anything in this exciting young industry!

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I tend to be a very cautious person, but I view risk-taking as an integral part of growth for anyone. There’s a million ways to say it, but I like to boil my thoughts on risk to “great deeds are usually wrought at great risks”. For example, every new component that we have added to UCLA Gaming comes with its myriad of possible failures, and even today I feel I am constantly battling the repercussions of adding a new program before we have fully fleshed out other programs. However, the ultimate goal of any university should be to support our students, and so that helps me contextualize and push forward despite signs that may incline others to turn back.

The way I see it, as long as an initiative is coming from a place where we are aiming to always benefit students, then the risks will almost always be negligible because they are in pursuit of our ultimate goal. And from those risks, we have graduated students from Bruin Broadcasting, for example, who currently work on broadcasts for professional teams or League of Legends Academy, the tier 2 of competition just below the best in the world. Were there risks applied to purchasing brand-new media equipment to make this happen? Absolutely. However, the students have yet to let me down in their pursuit of their passions, and as long as I am supporting them, then I know I am taking the right risks at the right times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://uclaclubsports.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UCLASunny

Image Credits
Jason Keany, Nix, Bruin Broadcasting