2019 has already been super hard for me…
Around the end of February last year, a group of friends and I started something that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was something that I was somewhat familiar with, and always wanted to have a career in. We founded a esports brand known as Vireo.pro.
We wanted to set a standard for this type of amateur esports brands, by treating all of our staff and all of our players properly, and not seeing them as just a number and actually paying them We worked hard on being the best we could, constantly improving, constantly looking for the best options to better everyone who flew under our wings.
But, the more I focused on Vireo, the more I lost motivation in photography. Add this to me starting culinary school, and not enjoying it, was extremely hard for me to focus. I had to pick what I wanted to do all the time, and it was thought for me to stick to one thing, so I bounced from one, to the other constantly. I was unable to sit sill.
After ending school, I told myself that I would focus on Vireo, while also keeping photography as a hobby, and if you have read my other blog posts you would have seen that I wrote about a “creative block,” and looking back at it now, I know that it was just lack of motivation, because I was spreading myself too thin.
With Vireo, I had the chance of going to Montreal to see one of the teams compete at Dreamhack MTL 2018, and to meet everyone, and it was probably the best thing to have happened in 2018. The event was filled with first times. For some, it was there first time flying, for some, first time leaving the country, and for others, there first time at a bar, and drinking. I will always remember the smiles that the event brought on everyone.
You're probably asking yourself "What does this have to do with 2019 if this all happened last year?" Well, as of today, we have ceased operations entirely for now.
This is probably the hardest things for me to do, and I know that some people may be confused, or angry, or just in shock, and trust me, I am feeling all of those things right now, but I don't want to get into the full details.
I want to thank everyone that helped us get to where we are now, and I am going to make sure that everyone finds a new home, no matter how long it takes. I also want to thank everyone that helped us in our charity stream where we raised over $500 for MetoWe in 24 hours.
This is the end of a dream, but it had to be done.
"After caring for the chick, the mother now faces the fear of allowing it young to fly free on its own. some survive and some don't."
Update Jan 6th: Vireo.pro will be staying dormant for right now while Colin and I figure out what we want to do with it. All comments from anyone other then myself and Colin do not represent our current plans.