Welcome to The Jacob Wolf Report

Hello? *tap* *tap* Is this thing on?

If you’re reading this, first off, thanks for being here. Secondly, you probably know me, but if you don’t — here’s a little background: 

I’m a 25-year-old, award-winning investigative reporter. At 19 I was the youngest talent hire ESPN ever made; I worked there for four and a half years. Over the past eight years, I’ve covered the gaming and esports industries as the former became the most dominant form of entertainment in the world and the latter became a billion-dollar business. 

In 2018, the Esports Awards named me its Journalist of the Year. In December, Forbes inducted me into its 2022 30-Under-30 Gaming Class. A few months ago, I parted ways with Dot Esports, where throughout all of last year I led its news and investigation team. 

Q1 has been a major time of reflection for me. Honestly I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue as a full-time writer and really considered moving solely into the video and audio production industry. Yet, as I watched from the sidelines, I kept seeing gaming and esports news I wanted to know more about, but no one was covering it. I kept feeling the itch that started my career.

So today, I’m launching The Jacob Wolf Report, a thrice-weekly, subscription-based newsletter diving deep into the gaming and esports industries with the eye of an investigative reporter. Stories will go live every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I’m excited to be the first gaming journalist partnering with Substack, and I look forward to continuing to bring value to the gaming industry.

Let me be clear—as I expect some of my regular readers may not be familiar with this platform—Substack is not my employer. They are helping me build my own thing, that I solely own, providing guidance and resources along the way.

By subscribing to this newsletter, you’re directly supporting me, similar to how you’d support a creator on Patreon or Twitch, except I’m a writer, not a streamer, a musician or a cosplayer. 

Also, the launch of this publication does not affect Overcome. I’ll be doing both—continuing to get into the weeds of the gaming and esports industry here and building storytelling video and audio projects at Overcome. In my absence from writing the past couple of months, I’ve been focused on building out a terrific team of people at Overcome and I’m excited to continue creating content in those mediums.

So what do you get for subscribing to The Jacob Wolf Report?

For starters, for $10 per month or $100 per year:

• You’ll get access to all the content I create here, from longform features to thoughtful analysis of relevant topics in the gaming and esports industries.

• Sneak peeks at content from Overcome, publisher permitting, and viewing & listening parties when our content goes live.

• And you’ll receive an elevated, special role in my Discord, providing you access to private discussion channels with me and industry VIPs.

If you’re feeling generous, I’m also launching a $1,000 per year “Founding Member” plan, which includes:

• Another elevated Discord role to show off your support.

• My direct contact information, so you can reach out to me whenever you like.

• And, if you like, special shoutouts in the bottom of posts throughout the year (message me if you’d like to be added to this list).

For the next three weeks, you can subscribe at a 30% discount: $7 per month for your first year or $70 per year (offer ends April 25, 2022).

All my breaking news pieces will remain for free subscribers, and for the first three weeks of the newsletter, no content will be behind a paywall. And best of all: no annoying ads throughout the pages of this newsletter. 

I felt really fulfilled with my work last year, from completing a multi-year investigation into Joshua Mullins, the now-convicted scam artist who before his 18th birthday tried to forge his way to $42 million; to reporting on the G2-Cloud9 contract that forbade the latter from selling Luke “PerkZ” Perković’s contract to Fnatic. 

I want to continue doing that kind of work, but with a broader focus on not just esports, but on gaming as a whole.

Over the past few months I’ve taken a step back and watched the esports journalism profession from the sidelines. I’ve seen the mass layoffs at Upcomer and the pause of Esports.GG and more than a dozen important stories not being covered with the depth they should. 

While I can’t solve all these problems—and I hope those talented journalists find new jobs—I also think it’s important that I continue contributing to the industry in this way, and that was a primary motivation for why I’ve decided to go this direction.

I’ve opted to go fully independent because of the opportunity to cover the stories I’m most interested in, to retain the ownership of my work, and because I believe that independent journalism like this is the future of the industry. 

News organizations are important, and I've subscribed to nearly a dozen of them myself, but I also recognize that audiences are becoming more niche—focusing solely on their interests and struggling to justify paying for content they don’t consume. I also believe readers want to feel connected to the people who are writing the content they read and there’s no better way to do that than to build a community around your work. 

So what do you say? Want to join me in my journey to keep those in gaming accountable?

Jacob