G1 co-founder Kenny Vaccaro says his Halo team is approaching top-10 status.
Kenny Vaccaro is an expert at finding a lane, identifying a target, and heading at it full-speed for maximum impact. Recently, he found himself in Anaheim doing just that, bobbing and weaving through traffic in a hurry, one eye on the clock the entire way.
The target this time wasn’t a running back who juked his way to the second level. It was an actual Target.
In Southern California for the regional finals of their tournament, his players’ hands were cramping up in the frigid air conditioning, hindering their performance. So he hopped in his car and raced to pick up hand-warmers for the squad. Once he returned, his team turned it around. They didn’t win the tournament, but they proved they belonged in a bracket with some of the best teams in the world — at Halo.
The thing is, Vaccaro, the former Texas Longhorns, New Orleans Saints, and Tennessee Titans safety still devours game film. He’s a grinder. Though these days he’s not watching, rewinding, dissecting, or rewinding tapes of Ezekiel Elliot’s hip movements or Tom Brady’s eyes on play action.
October 16, 2010: Texas Longhorns safety Kenny Vaccaro #16 tackles Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Taylor Martinez #3 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Texas defeated Nebraska 20 to 13. (Photo by John S. Peterson/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
Vaccaro obsesses over spawn points, plasma rifles, and killstreaks. The former first-round NFL draft pick now owns Gamers First (G1), an Austin-based esports company with Destiny and Halo teams founded in 2019.
«It’s just like football,» says Hunter Swensson, G1’s other co-founder. Together they recruit players, hire coaches, oversee practice and scrimmages, and otherwise mentally and physically prepare their players for streaming and competition.
Swensson gloats of a top Destiny roster, telling me that G1 has one of the best, if not the best, content creator teams out there. He also stresses that though they’d been talking about G1 for years, when they really got serious, they had one shot to make a good first impression in competition. Both Swensson and Vaccaro say that their Halo team is at worst a top-16 team in North America — maybe even top 10.
Earlier this week, that dedication and early success paid off, when South by Southwest announced a new slate of programming for the upcoming conference. On Saturday, March 12, Vaccaro will appear at «Gamers: The New Icons of Pop Culture & Fashion» alongside Matt «BK» Augustin, director of brand and creative strategy at FaZe Clan, the most famous and valuable eports and streaming organization in the world.
«There’s no no doubt in my mind,» Swensson says. «We don’t reach that level without Kenny’s NFL retirement.»
NFL safety Kenny Vaccaro (center) turned down contract offers to focus on G1, his Austin-based esports organization, alongside Hunter Swensson (left) and Cody Hendrix.
When Vaccaro retired from the NFL after seven seasons on December 1, 2021, he still had more football in him. He even had, he says, «two or three» teams offer him a contract and tell him he’d have a starting job once the ink was dry. But he also heard from a Texas real estate tycoon, one worth north of $200 million, who wanted to take a chance on Vaccaro’s fledgling esports company.
«The exact day that I received an offer from a team, Gary Keller, he invested in G1,» Vaccaro says. «Nobody knows that yet. You’re the first person I’ve ever told this.»
Vaccaro says that Keller, the owner of Keller Williams Realty, the largest real estate franchise in America, didn’t want to just invest in G1, which Vaccaro co-founded in 2019 with Swensson and Cody Hendrix. The family fund only wanted in if Vaccaro was all-in too.
They said, «I’m not investing in G1,» Vaccaro remembers. «I’m investing in you. I’m investing in Kenny Vaccaro.»
The company’s insistence on Vaccaro’s direct involvement is a reflection of the tendency among athletes to invest in esports companies, and with good reason. The industry is expected to generate nearly $2 billion in revenue, almost doubling the 2021 figure. Former Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett invested in Triumph Esports in 2019. Former San Antonio Spurs player Tony Parker became an ambassador for the Rainbow Six World Cup in 2020. The difference is Vaccaro’s day-to-day involvement in the organization.
He insists he isn’t just a figurehead.
«A lot of these athletes that are representing orgs, I think it’s just kind of a front,» Vaccaro says. «I mean, there’s some that game, like Juju (Smith-Schuster) and Kyler Murray with FaZe. I’m not calling them out or anything. I’m just saying, are these guys really in the trenches doing it every day? Maybe not. Maybe they are. But you just never know.»
NASHVILLE, TN – NOVEMBER 10: Kenny Vaccaro #24 of the Tennessee Titans enters the field before the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Nissan Stadium on November 10, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeats Kansas City 35-32. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
Over Zoom, I ask Vaccaro to compare himself to an NFL owner. Is he like Jerry Jones, the longtime Cowboys owner who famously — or infamously — has a say in every decision the team makes? Vaccaro laughs but doesn’t take the bait. Still, he does hover over every decision G1 makes. Vaccaro is in every meeting and has his hands in everything from operations hiring to player recruiting to choosing designs for merch.
«I’m not just trying to gloat, but I’m hands-on,» Vaccaro says. «We have scrimmages, and we’re all sitting in Discord. My wife gets mad, because you can hear the guys calling out sometimes, and I’m like, ‘Babe, I gotta be in the locker room with these guys. I want them to know that I care.'»
That’s a trait Vaccaro picked up in high school, he says. Recruited out of Early High School, northeast of Abilene, Vaccaro committed to the University of Texas to play for Longhorns coach Mack Brown, passing up offers from Baylor, Oklahoma, Florida, and Stanford. He says that every school had oodles of cash to pay for swanky facilities and amenities for football players. In recruiting, you have to set yourself apart.
«The coaches that took care of my mom, where my mom felt like there was good energy, that’s the one I went to,» Vaccaro says. «When the vibe is right, the vibe is just right. And we try to create that type of culture.»
G1 co-founder Hunter Swensson during HCS Anaheim 2022.
Though the announcement of G1 came in 2021 upon Vaccaro’s retirement from professional football, the co-founders had been kicking the idea around for at least three years prior. Swensson and Vaccaro met through Instagram and started playing «Trials of Osiris,» a weekly event in Destiny 2.
Swensson immediately saw Vaccaro’s passion for gaming. While his Saints and Titans teammates were out on the town after games, he was back at the hotel plugging his Playstation into his room’s ethernet port. It was his pregame and postgame ritual.
«I was like, ‘Okay, like, this guy’s entrenched. He’s invested, he’s committed, I can feel in his heart that gaming might actually be his first passion'» Swensson says. «Kind of like the same discovery I had.»
Swensson also played Texas high school football at Plano West and, as a senior, played on varsity with then-freshman Jackson Jeffcoat. Recruited by Texas Tech and TCU, Swensson started to feel a pull toward competitive gaming, a decision made easier by a devastating knee injury. He was a professional Halo player by 19, eventually becoming the first pro gamer to elicit sponsorships by Kicker Audio and Toyota Motors.
G1 Halo coach and analyst Eli Hensley working with his team during competition at HCS Anaheim 2022.
But professional gamers have come a long way since Swensson went pro. Back then they were portrayed as sun-starved, out-of-shape, Mountain Dew chugging nerds wasting away in their moms’ basements.
G1 offices on South Congress Avenue, above Vaccaro’s gym, Kollective. The idea is vertical integration — to create a health and wellness crossover with gaming. Players workout downstairs, hop in the sauna, and take a cold plunge before heading upstairs to stream. Vaccaro says that he also hired a team doctor for his Halo squad, who will have G1 players working out in the morning and competing in professional matches that afternoon.
«If my players need physical therapy, if they need mental health coaches, they’re all downstairs,» Vaccaro says. «A lot of orgs say that they provide all this, but I don’t know too many orgs that have it right next to each other, they can make it that accessible.»
And instead of Mountain Dew Code Red, G1 is sponsored by Richard’s Rainwater, a bottled still and sparkling water company based out of Dripping Springs.
Swensson attributes gaming’s mainstream rise and society’s perception of gamers to the proliferation of mobile games worldwide. Moms playing Candy Crush in the checkout line, dads trying to get a high score on Angry Birds from the couch, etc.
«That was the catalyst for when everybody started to realize that … we’re actually all gamers,» he says.
Vaccaro has always felt that gaming would go mainstream, and that esports would be an enormous global industry, but gives a different reason for its recent meteoric rise.
«Money,» he says. «Money is what wakes people up. When 100 Thieves announced they had a $460 million valuation, now everybody’s like, ‘Hold on what’s going on with this gaming stuff?'»
Beyond that, Vaccaro notes that Brett Favre recently wearing a FaZe Clan jersey — a team valued at $1 billion — at this year’s NFL Pro Bowl would have been considered sacrilegious a few years ago.
DALLAS, TX – JUNE 01: Competitors compete in a Halo tournament during DreamHack at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on June 1, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
«It’ll be in the Olympics eventually. I know that’s probably coming soon,» Vaccaro says.
It seems crazy, but he might be right. In 2018, the International Olympic Committee met, ultimately deciding it was premature to include esports in the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, last year the organization formed the Olympic Virtual Series. In February, the IOC hired a virtual head of sport to «play a role in delivering gaming and engagement objectives as part of the 15 recommended development goals for the IOC up to 2025.»
Vaccaro also sees a huge national professional esports league on the horizon, like the MLB and NBA.
«I don’t know, the National Gaming League, or something, where each state has these licensed teams that compete, and it’s gonna be billions and billions of dollars of revenue,» he says. «There’s going to be esports stadiums and all types of merch being sold. They’re gonna find a way to monetize it.»
Swensson points to the ongoing MLB lockout as another opening for esports. Though he’s a competitor at heart, he knows what eports is to the consumer: content.
«No games, no content,» he says. «If you’re trying to survive in 2022 with no content, dude … I wouldn’t tell a mom-and-pop shop on Sixth Street to not have content. And this is Major League freaking Baseball!»
The G1 Halo team during HCS Anaheim 2022.
«No,» Vaccaro says, before I can finish asking my question. That question is simple: «Do you miss the physical aspect of the NFL?»
He mentions NFL players having to take Toradol, a very strong anti-inflammatory, just to get into games, the opioid epidemic, and the mental impact of having constant physical pain.
«I’m probably two inches shorter than I used to be from all the hits,» Vaccaro says. «You can ask anybody how I played: it was ruthless. It was reckless. I played like a savage.»
He now plays as Savage, his gamertag, happily from the comfort of his own home or from the G1 offices. Either way, Vaccaro says that even if Keller hadn’t come calling with a big, fat check, he would have gone for it regardless.
«Another reason why I stepped away is I knew that I was going to blink, play a season this year, and Austin was going to leave me behind, because it’s growing too fast,» Vaccaro says. «I feel like I had no choice. Even if the money wasn’t there, I would have put my own money in.»
He mentions Infinity Ward’s new Austin office, the developers behind Call of Duty, rumors of Disney opening up offices in Austin, and anything and everything Elon Musk is doing in Central Texas. Austin is already a streaming hub of sorts, with giants One True King (OTK) starting its own empire, having set up in neighboring houses in Round Rock.
I think it’s a powder keg of opportunity,» Swensson says. «A lot of tech companies are also moving to Austin, so it kind of has that Silicon Valley kind of wave to it, even though I don’t think Silicon Valley or even Silicon Beach in Los Angeles is quite like what it was back then. But maybe that’s because it’s coming to Austin.»
As the team prepares for its next competition in Kansas City in two months, Vaccaro sees national recognition for G1’s Halo teams on the horizon. Beyond that, he sees perhaps fielding teams in other games, like Apex Legends or Valorant. Maybe both.
«I see building multiple teams, winning championships, doing very, very good merch drops that the world wants to get behind. And I see me doing it local in Austin. I really, really want to plant my flag in Austin,» he says.
Vaccaro says that Austin doesn’t really have a professional sports team, before remembering the city’s MLS squad, Austin FC.
«But, you know, eh,» he says. «I want to be that first Austin staple pro team. And its going to come from gaming.»
Chris O’Connell covers all things Austin. He can be found @theechrisoc.
