This is a love letter to kaiju corp. Kaiju corp is a gaming community that I am currently a part of. The community was formed in 2016 through competitive Overwatch and since then has grown in size with community and competitive teams.
As for me, I currently do some work behind the scenes for kaiju corp such as updating the community calendar, social media and random things for the competitive Valorant team. I also manage kaiju corp kngc which is an Overwatch team full of Chicagoland locals. I was around kaiju corp probably around late 2020 but I think I fully committed to the community in mid 2021. Looking back, I realized I haven’t been around the community that long but it feels like I’ve been here since the beginning. I guess that’s just how deep I am with everybody involved.
One of the biggest things that made me really love this community is that almost everyone is local to the Chicagoland area. As you know, I’m not from Chicago. I grew up in Southern California. Other than my husband, his family and a few of his close friends, I didn’t know anyone from here. All my close friends are still living in California. Honestly, there were many times I felt alone. But once I got more involved with kaiju corp, I felt like felt like I had a place to go. I felt welcomed in Chicago and felt like I belong here. Once the pandemic was slowly lifting, I had places to go on the weekends to meet up with them. And I couldn’t ask for a better group of amazing people to be around.
The opportunities kaiju corp has given me has been unparalleled. Because of this community, I was able to manage a local team full of friends. Nowadays, we don’t scrim or play as much Overwatch but every time we meet up for a LAN, it’s like we just picked up where we last left off. When kaiju corp holds in person events, I volunteer to take photos. Because of this experience, I felt comfortable enough to sign up for the Immortals Great Lakes Region Correspondence program and get paid to take pictures at events! For my husband, the connections kaiju corp has gave him the paid opportunity to coach DePaul University’s Overwatch team.
I know there’s a lot more I could say, but I feel like it would be a really long post and I wanted to keep this short and sweet. To me, of all the communities and organizations out there, kaiju corp is second to none. From their values and goals to the actually community members, I have been lucky to come across them. Most of all, thank you to Sean, aka Tengu, for bringing me in. Probably the most wholesome, loving dude out there and he has a personality esports truly needs. My only wish is that I could do more for the community, but I know Tengu would tell me I do more than enough haha! Also, I want to thank Chuck, aka PlzHeal, as well. I was initially brought in by Sean to help Chuck with his organization, Chicago’s Forge, before combining forces within kaiju corp. Both Chuck and Sean share the same vision of how they want esports to go and they both have been such great friends and “colleagues” to me.
And this just how kaiju corp has directly affected me on a personal level. I haven’t even gone into how the community has greatly impacted esports in the Chicagoland area just within the last two years. It’s just so inspiring and I’m so glad I got to be a part of this journey.
Well I hope you enjoy this post! If you want to learn more about kaiju corp, please check out the WEBSITE as well as follow the TWITTER account. But that is it for me, I’ll see you next time!
Content By Sheena 