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Inside FlyQuest’s recently opened practice facility, aptly named the Greenhouse, newly appointed CEO Tricia “megumixbear” Sugita pauses from tending to the meticulously arranged array of floral arrangements to reflect. The road that led her to this place has been a lifetime’s worth of work, and she is ready for her latest challenge–being a new CEO.
“There is no one more qualified and deserving to lead FlyQuest than Tricia,” said Ryan Edens, now former CEO, who will transition to the role of FlyQuest president with the move. “Under Tricia’s leadership, FlyQuest has united under one vision. We founded FlyQuest in 2017 as a platform to showcase the greatness that already exists in everyone. Tricia has been the living embodiment of that vision.”
Sugita comes from the trenches of esports, having been a StarCraft 2 player of some renown, a Top Eight Masters player, as well as being a caster, a streamer, and interviewer, before moving to a professional role in an esports organization .
But besides her life in esports, Sugita has a vast amount of experience on her resume.
As the global director of esports at AZUBU, she negotiated multi-million dollar deals as well as helped bring more than 12M unique visitors to the web site. And before becoming the COO at FlyQuest in 2018, she was the head of partnerships for Immortals and its Overwatch League franchise, the Los Angeles Valiant.
However, not all of the qualifications Edens refers to are simply Sugita’s business acumen or ability to lead. What he refers to is the wisdom Sugita has learned over the course of her personal life as well.
“I’ve always known I have a greater purpose and that purpose is to make people happy and I do that through esports,” Sugita said. “Now that becomes the invaluable privilege I have at FlyQuest as CEO, in addition to working on the company vision together with Ryan.”
As CEO, Sugita will start 2020 with a lot on her plate; the opening of a new facility, along with FlyQuest’s “Go Green” and “Showcase Greatness” endeavors, to name a few.
“To kick off 2020, we are launching our first initiative – Go Green. We believe everyone has the ability to affect real change for our planet, and we want to facilitate ways for us to address important environmental issues together,” Sugita opined. “Green, as a color, symbolizes so much of what is important to us. It represents life, nature, growth, harmony, and the environment.”
FlyQuest’s ‘Go Green’ philosophy will be integrated into the organization which includes community activations, jersey design, and campaigns. The esports organization will also be raising money to plant trees and planting a lot ourselves, as well, and enacting our mission to ‘Save the Wild Turtles.’”
These initiatives show another layer of Sugita. She is a sensei of Sangetsu Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, which she has practiced for the better part of 30 years. She says it has had a profound effect on how she views the world, personally and professionally. It is the catalyst behind FlyQuest’s 2020 training facility as well.
“Ichebana is something I truly believe in. I started when I was around three-years-old,” Sugita explained. “Nature has such a strength with grace. Honoring nature is important to me. That’s why we chose Ichebana because it’s important to have gratitude and know why we are doing it.”
FlyQuests’ new training facility appears to be driven by this philosophy.
The Greenhouse has over 7,000 square feet of dedicated space. The facility includes practice rooms for both LCS and Academy teams, coaching/review rooms, content studios, open workspaces, conference rooms, rec rooms, and more. The actual green-colored Greenhouse represents FlyQuest’s commitment to its new initiative..
The interaction between the business staff and players is important to the organization, according to Sugita.
“Players feel more involved with what we’re trying to create together, as they can really see how much we care about what we do.” she said. “It’s early, but we are already seeing the positive effects on not just the players, but the business staff, too, of truly being united under one vision, one goal. They want to be here, they want to work hard, and they want to win.”
As CEO, another of Sugita’s responsibilities will be bringing FlyQuest’s brand of “Showcase Greatness” to life; previously, she led FlyQuest initiatives in supporting women, students, and refugees.
“I am honored and grateful to be the CEO of this organization that I care deeply about,” said Sugita. “The heart of FlyQuest is ‘greatness,’ and it drives everything we do. We’ve done a great job bringing in the right people and creating a culture that celebrates greatness. As CEO, my priority is to share our vision so everyone knows that what we do has purpose and ties back to our vision: Showcase Greatness. We want to inspire and attract people who pursue greatness and support others who do the same.”
Lastly, as CEO, Sugita knows that putting a winning product out there is important to the success of the franchise. Everything she has done and will do likely leads to this end.
“Greatness is more than just what you do and perform. Of course we want to win and of course we believe in you and we’re gonna win. But at the same time, we can also win in life. That’s the point.”
