PEOPLE BEHIND BLAST: Tom Greene
A journey from the Wizarding World to the magic of esports
Welcome to People Behind BLAST, a series dedicated to looking behind the curtain at the BLAST employees who make it all happen. Kicking off this series, we start with Chief Operating Officer, Tom Greene.
Prior to being a part of the BLAST team, Tom worked on the Harry Potter franchise for six years, first for J.K. Rowling's Pottermore business and then, following an acquisition, for Warner Bros.
Tom runs all our esports ecosystems including BLAST Premier and BLAST Rainbow6 and has been a driving force for the site you’re currently reading this on, BLAST.tv
To find out a bit more about our COO, his role at BLAST and his highlights, we sat down with Tom and had a quick Q&A session to dive a little bit deeper.
So firstly, how long have you been at BLAST?
Just over 2 years now but I think we work more in ‘dog years’ here so it feels a lot longer than that!
What were you doing before joining BLAST? What sort of industry were you in?
I worked on the Harry Potter / Wizarding World franchise for a little over 6 years. I worked across a range of commercial/digital activity across all our Harry Potter activity - which pretty much encompassed every type of media… except esports!
Towards the end of my time I had moved to running a lot of the direct-to-consumer stuff we were doing. If you have ever been ‘sorted’ into your Hogwarts House on pottermore.com or wizardingworld.com, that was us!
So you’ve traded the Wizarding world for the magic of esports then?
Although the industries may seem quite different on paper, I think I’ve actually found the job to be quite similar. Even though esports looks very new-age from the outside, there is a lot of the same fundamentals of any media and consumer business, so it’s been really fun to learn a new industry but apply some of the best practices from my former industry.
So in your current role, what do you think is the best part of your job, what do you enjoy the most?
I like the crossover of being commercial and helping lead the charge to grow the business each year and defining where we focus, coupled with being relatively creative with the products we create.
On the blast.tv side, you’re making digital experiences and a digital home that didn't exist before so that sense of ‘something out of nothing’ is something I enjoy. In general, the commercial/creative combo maybe light up different parts of my brain and it’s fun to have that breadth.
2023 has already had a few events this year with the Paris Major and Copenhagen. Is there an event at the end of this year you’re looking forward to, or was Paris the peak?
Well, the BLAST.tv Major in Paris was amazing because BLAST.tv was at some point a sketch on a whiteboard, and then seeing it be the centre of one of the biggest events in the calendar was a bit of a ‘pinch yourself’ moment. That’s a real highlight for me at BLAST.
I’ve also been to the Rainbow Six Atlanta Major, a part of America I hadn’t been to before, and we had a packed show out there. It was great seeing so many fans in the US enjoy what we do. There was also the Fall Final in Copenhagen now we've got the World Final in Abu Dhabi, so lots going on this year!
Image credits: Michal KonkolWhat has been that stand-out moment from your time here so far? Was it seeing BLAST.tv being on that global pedestal for the major or something else perhaps?
I think, in general, the highlight or thing I’m most proud of has been the scale of growth we’ve had. You put into place plans across existing businesses, new businesses, and new platforms.
You try and help build an organisation that can deliver those and when it comes through, it’s very satisfying because everything always starts as conceptual ideas…but now we’ve become a c.130-person business that is 15x the scale it was a few years ago.
From these last two years, have you had a favourite destination you’ve travelled to for BLAST?
Oh, that’s tricky! It might be boring but I might have to say Paris. Just seeing a city I know well get taken over in part by BLAST was really cool.
I relocated to Copenhagen 18 months ago so I should also mention my adopted home too; when the weather is good in the summer I think it might be one of the best places in the world! Just don’t ask me about the winters…!
Okay so, hypothetically, you’ve become a part of a BLAST broadcast, what role do you think you’d play? An analyst, maybe a host, or perhaps a coach or player?
Well, I definitely couldn’t be a player… or a coach… or an analyst because that would require a level of technical knowledge I think I’ve not quite got.
I’d always like to give hosting a go, being that Dave Jones to Gary Neville (Launders/Scrawny). This football reference might be lost on the audience reading this!! But riffing off people with that deep knowledge of the game and drawing expertise from those around me. Yeah, I think I could give that a go!
And finally, to round it off, what are your hobbies outside of work? What do you get up to in your free time?
I’m definitely part of the BLAST cricket fan club. I think there’s a few of us that love our cricket. I listen and read a lot of news and politics. On my daily cycle to work I’m listening to some UK news to remind me of home now that I’m living in Copenhagen.