Enrique OZ Espinoza

May 6 marks my 3 year anniversary of moving from San Diego to work in San Francisco for ASTRO Gaming. Although not a big deal to some, it was difficult decision at the time since I'd be leaving all my friends and family behind to start a new chapter in my life. It's also a day away from my 10 year journey into eSports and my involvement in a growing community.  I feel like this is a good time to detail some of my steps into photography and competitive gaming. 

GameLordz San Diego

 May 5, 2005  - Competitive Player

My first Halo tournament with Team Legends (LGD). I can tell it was Cinco De Mayo because Kyle was wearing three shirts at the time to symbolize the mexican flag...red, white and green is underneath. I met Chase (ChaosTheory) at this event and a this was my connection to becoming an MLG Moderator a few years later. 

Oz. Torment. Chaosdaninja.Devastator

MLG Las Vegas

October 12, 2007 - Competitive Player/Coach

This was the first MLG that I had attended alongside Team Legends where they took home 4th place. Around these years I played a lot of Halo, Gears of War, Fear and Call of Duty. I had good placings at some tournaments and I a ton of fun competing with the best. 

Blackjack. Desecrate. Oz. Devastator. FiberOptix

MLG Dallas

August 30, 2009 - MLG Referee

After being a moderator on the MLG forums for a few years I was given the opportunity to work at events for their Madden Best Buy Circuit.

MLG Raleigh

September 10, 210 - Production Assistant/ Camera for B-Stream

I became good friends with Andreas Nexy Pierson who was the director of the B-Stream at the time and I joined their production team for events.

MLG Anaheim

August 26, 2011 - Graphics Coordinator

Our viewers per event kept growing and so did our production team. We ran streams for Call of Duty, League of Legends, Tekken from what I can remember. I met some amazing talent at that time even though I was just a guy behind a computer changing name titles. 

MLG Dallas

November 2, 2012 - Head Photographer at MLG

This advancement at MLG had a shaky start because Nexy had left MLG to work at ASTRO Gaming which had left me out of the production team. I was able to inquire about the new open position as a photographer and they gave me a chance. 

Not only would I do event photos, I felt the need to do recap videos for each event because nobody really captured the audience they way I thought it should. So I quickly became known for my photography and video recaps at MLG

MLG Anaheim 2012

My experience at Anaheim this year. It was a great event and probably one of the biggest events MLG has had yet. Filmed with a Canon 5D MII. http://www.eespinoza.com http://www.twitter.com/ozenriquee

eSports 2012 - 2013

This opportunity with MLG boosted my eSports presence as a photographer and got contracted to cover events for Curse, Blizzard and Riot. I was able to experience being on main stage of the Staples Center to flying across the world at witness the WCS finals in Shanghai, China. 

Most of it summed up in this video - E Espinoza 2012

I had a very exciting year in which I got to travel and meet a lot of new people. From Boston to Shanghai I was able to work with a lot of talent and also just be around eSports. I always had a good time with friends and tried to spend my days with optimistic people.

ASTRO Gaming

May 6, 2013 - Present ( 2016 )

While all of this was happening I got offered a job at ASTRO by Nexy and their team to join as an editor and photographer at the time. After two years of hard work and changes around the company I moved on to being the Multimedia Manager of ASTRO Gaming. I'm very grateful for everyone that encouraged me along the way from start to finish.

Since my journey I've been to about 92 events and counting, I hope it doesn't end soon

My love for eSports and visual work enabled me to get to where I've never thought I'd be. I'm blessed and happy to continue to work with such an amazing team in the office and incredible talent within our #ASTROFamily