The Goals of Ascension Protocol
I’ll try to pair this with a video that says the same thing, so read/watch what format you prefer! I’ll try to keep things as concise as possible. TL;DR Ascension Protocol is a project meant to boost the North American Pro Rocket League scene, as well as be a way for me to justify my time spent pursuing a career in esports. Before I get too deep, I want to provide some context.
Being a professional commentator is awesome, but there are pros and cons, just like anything someone does with their time. The pros are many: getting to travel the world, be a part of esports history, work with brilliant and fun people, and have flexibility on how you spend time. The cons may differ depending on your perspective, but for me the biggest cons are unpredictability (due to short contract lengths & no guarantee of 3rd party events) and no clear career progression. To combat the cons, my big goal this year is to utilize my studio space (which was built out for Turf Wars back in 2022 and has since served as a bootcamp location to NRG, GenG, PWR & Gladiators) to run professional esports events that will help NA reach it’s full potential, but also be a source for me to create competitive Rocket League content that I believe there’s a demand for.
I have some experience running LAN events, which you can check out on my past events page. Up to this point, I’ve always worked on a team. I would handle much of the production and event planning, but distribution was never mainly on my channels. With Rizzo departing Rocket League (RIP), it dealt a huge blow to me. I had so much fun doing Regain (thanks Boston Scott), Turf Wars, The Draw S1 & 2, SoloQ and Club Dubs with Rizzo, we were on a roll! When Rizzo took a step back, that left me feeling more empty than a boost starved fennec trying to defend a high double tap. On top of that, with RLCS reducing the amount of work days, I knew I needed to do something to keep the esports dream alive…
North America as a region also has some uncertainty. The G2 roster (now NRG) was able to win a major recently, but the region as a whole has been trailing EU for some time, with France dominating. What France has done serves as a big inspiration for me, and has inspired this initiative. The French scene has multiple LANs and they have built a culture of comradery & improvement. This is where Ascension Protocol comes in. Using my experience from running past events, Ascension Protocol is the launch pad for my goal of using LAN events to build comradery & help NA improve as a whole. The “baseline” event will be a 4 player 1v1 LAN…this is so I can run the event without any sponsors or licenses should that be the case. This will ensure I can run the event no matter what, providing a stable platform for competition and content. Thankfully, the awesome folks at Data Coach caught wind of this project before the announcement, and will be sponsoring the initial prize pool! There are also additional plans to “upgrade” the event. Drawing in my experience from Gold Rush, I plan to have a crowdfunding aspect. There will be VIP tickets available for purchase, as well as community sponsors & real sponsors and merch. If the event grows in popularity it will also grow in size. My hope is that Ascension Protocol can be a multi-season 8-16 player 1v1 LAN series.
I also have ideas for other formats (remember SoloQ?) which I’m ready to execute, but that would require landing bigger sponsors like CashApp was for SoloQ or Ally was for The Draw. Another aspect of this project is me trying to obtain my own sponsors without any middle men. The thought is that this would allow me to give these sponsors “more for less” and be a career progression path for me personally. I’m dead set on making events happen this year. If you’re still reading this, thank you for the support! Every little bit helps.
If you have any questions, comments or want to help out, you can drop me a line at contact@jamesbot.net!
