Learn about the career path of Alicia Bohbot, Event & Esports Manager at Ubisoft.
An Event & Esports Manager for the last two years, Alicia tells us how she found a fascinating, competitive environment at Ubisoft, as well as a community of passionate players.
“My path was university-based: first I studied mathematics applied to social sciences, before doing a Master’s in marketing and management at the ESSEC. On completion of my Master’s, I had the opportunity to embark on an internship at Ubisoft, working with the events team. The six months went very well, and three months later, when the opportunity came up, I became Head of an events and marketing project for two years. I worked on all of the coordination aspects at Paris Games Week.
This is when the opportunity arose to follow Esports competitions, initially with Rainbow Six’s Cup of France 2017. I had already played in my younger years with my family. And yes, I began to play again on joining Ubisoft; I was more console and controller than PC, keyboard and mouse. But through the competitions, I discovered a passionate community. It's like when you go to see a football match for the first time, a certain energy emanates from the audience, especially since in the case of video games, you need to really know the rules in order to understand what’s going on. The fans are therefore very responsive, they become highly expressive when new actions appear on the screen. I really started to become increasingly interested in this, in the game itself, of course, but also in the community, the players and the casters. We would run tournaments amongst colleagues and today I can say that I’m a true master of the keyboard-mouse combo!
This passion of mine allowed me to become Event & Esports Manager in May 2017. It’s a very versatile role; I work with a number of different people with varied skills, I remain in contact with the community, I manage events, streaming, advertising, the choice of competition formats, and art direction, amongst other aspects. To make this all happen, of course I work with my colleagues in marketing, press relations, the digital sphere, sales, etc. No two days are alike! And on D-Day, during tournaments, the real reward is seeing the joy on the faces of members of the public, recognition of the work that we have done for them.
Ubisoft recognized that I had an affinity for this field, so I was given the opportunity to take it a step further. Not all companies allow this or realize what their employees are passionate about. What’s more, I benefit from having true independence: I’m trusted in the decisions I make, even though I’ve never been a professional player in the past. Ubisoft is a very dynamic company that encourages you to learn and develop genuine expertise, in my case that of events and Esports, and that's what makes it so fascinating!”
More to discover on https://stories.ubisoft.com/ (French website)
CREDITS Author Vincent Manilève - Content Directors Maud Espié & Coline Molina - Photograph Valentin Nauton