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Show A-8 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, March 10-13, 2018 “Snap” watches over Utes JAMES HOYT/THE PARK RECORD Joe “Snap” Johnson, a native of the Park City area, coaches the University of Utah’s varsity Overwatch team. Parkite lends experience to U.’s varsity esports JAMES HOYT The Park Record SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2018 AT 6:00 PM SEVENTH ANNUAL ST. PATRICK’S DAY FUNDRAISER FOR PARK CITY INSTITUTE AT ST. REGIS DEER VALLEY DINNER, DANCING, PLUS SILENT AND LIVE AUCTIONS $200/PER PERSON - PROCEEDS BENEFIT PCI’S STUDENT OUTREACH PROGRAMS DRESSING THE PART IS ENCOURAGED… BUT NOT REQUIRED BUY TICKETS: 435-655-3114 OR PARKCITYINSTITUTE.ORG Where can a family like Where can Where can mine turn? aa family family like like mine mine turn? turn? A cacophony of mechanical keystrokes and clicking of mice accompanied by the steady hum of almost a dozen gaming computers plays out as one of the University of Utah’s varsity esports teams conducts one of its triweekly practice sessions in the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse. The array of PCs, each working hard to cool themselves, fills the room with hot air. Assistant coach Evelynn “Eevee” Le, paces around the room and stops to look over the shoulder of Connor “Tettrum” Nicholls, a player. The Utes shout enemy locations and their own statuses to one another constantly as they face off against an opposing team in a public match of “Overwatch.” In the opposite corner sits Joe “Snap” Johnson, a native of Park City and the team’s student head coach, watching intently from an in-game, bird’s-eye view as a controlled chaos unfolds below. No matter what’s happening in the markets or your life, Mogul Financial Group can help guide you with thoughtful advice. 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Greg Golding, CIMA®, CWS® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management Glen SeniorMintz Managed Accounts Consultant Glen Mintz Managing Director–Wealth Management gregory.golding@ubs.com Managing Director–Wealth Senior Porfolio Manager Management Senior Porfolio Manager glen.mintz@ubs.com Noah Levine glen.mintz@ubs.com Senior Vice President–Wealth Management Greg Golding, CIMA®, CWS® noah.levine@ubs.com Greg CIMA®, CWS®Management SeniorGolding, Vice President–Wealth Senior Vice President–Wealth Management Managed Accounts Consultant Senior Managed Accounts Consultant gregory.golding@ubs.com gregory.golding@ubs.com For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer. For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. For some we of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together can find an answer. Together we can find an answer. Coaching through experience Parkites have cultivated a reputation for being competitors. After all, the mountain town hosted an Olympics, and winter sports stars like Sarah Hendrickson and Ted Ligety hail from the area. Growing up around Jeremy Ranch, Johnson said he wasn’t as interested in skiing and snowboarding as his peers. He enjoyed playing video games, far away from the piste. Still, he carried the mean competitive streak of his contemporaries and it took him to a relatively new frontier: esports, or competitive video gaming. “We had a ‘(Super) Smash Bros.’ tournament at (Park City High School) ... It was very competitive, and it kind of had that title of the high school’s best Smash Bros. player and that was all very fascinating to me,” Johnson said. While he never took home the Smash title, his gaming skills progressed from there. Johnson’s portfolio of semi-pro and professional gaming includes a number of first-person shooters that require quick reflexes and superior target acquisition abilities. With those skill sets in mind, Johnson’s chosen nickname of “Snap” is a fitting one. When developer Blizzard released “Overwatch” in 2016, Johnson was studying at the University of Utah’s East Asia Campus in Incheon, South Korea. South Korea has the world’s most-established culture of competitive gaming, and Johnson found himself spending many long nights in gaming-focused, social internet cafes unique to South Korea called PC bangs, mastering the new game alongside friends and reaching the game’s highest public competitive level; the “Grandmaster” class, on the Asia server region. “We would start at 6 or 7 p.m. and we would leave at 7 or 8 a.m. the next day,” Johnson said. Now a senior majoring in economics with a part time class load and a full time job, Johnson lends his playing expertise to the U.’s Overwatch squad. As coaches, he and Le provide real-time feedback in practice, analyze VODs (videos on demand, or game film) of matches and give the players goals to shoot for, much as a coaching staff does in any other sport. “You’re looking for somebody that has the right frame of mind, he’s the same age of these players, but he can’t completely be their peer; he has to be their coach,” A.J. Dimick, director of the esports program, said of Johnson. “He is very compassionate with them, in that he has a lot of game knowledge, but he’s very interested in being a teacher and helping these guys get better.” Esports are both physically and mentally demanding. Long hours spent practicing the kinds of quick, precise keyboard and mouse movement necessary for high-level play, as well as posture habits, can take a toll on players’ bodies. Emotional toxicity among players has the potential to spread like a locker room flu, and Johnson says maintaining the team’s morale is paramount. The Utes regularly go out to eat together and enjoy a friendly (and essential) chemistry. The esports program also employs a sports psychologist to assist in the head game as well. Nicholls, a sophomore from Alpharetta, Georgia, plays “tank” heroes, so his role on the team requires close coordination with his teammates. He said that when his temper began to impact his performance, Johnson took notice. “Every day before a match he said, ‘Tettrum, if you get angry, I’m going to grief you down to plat,’” Nicholls said. Translation: If Nicholls reinforced that habit, Johnson would seek out Nicholls anytime he played on his own time and put him at risk of falling to a much lower rank by hindering his team or outright focusing fire on his character. Problem solved. “Eventually we all worked on it as a team, and we’re all cleared up now,” Nicholls said. Johnson agreed. “Tettrum’s improved a lot as a player,” he said. “I think he’s learned, himself, what he needs to strive to be doing to get good and focused during matches.” Please see Snap, A-10 Exclusive. Strategic. Refined. A great real estate brand is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Noah Levine Noah Senior Levine Vice President–Wealth Management Senior Vice President–Wealth Management noah.levine@ubs.com noah.levine@ubs.com Mogul Financial Group UBS Financial Services Inc. 255 Heber Avenue, PO Box 2879 Park City, UT 84060 435-252-3825 888-219-4914 ubs.com/team/mogul Mogul Financial Group Mogul Financial GroupInc. UBS Financial Services UBS Heber Financial Services Inc.2879 255 Avenue, PO Box CIMA is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association in the United States of America and worldwide. For designation disclosures, visit ubs.com/us/ 255 Heber Avenue, PO Box 2879 Park City, UT 84060 en/designation-disclosures. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand Park City, UT 84060 435-252-3825 888-219-4914 the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit © UBS 2018. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. CJ-UBS-912846366 Exp.: 01312019 our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. 435-252-3825 888-219-4914 ® In the midst of the fight, an enemy player controlling Winston, a sentient gorilla with serious jumping ability, disrupts the Utes’ defenses long enough for the opposing team to gain a foothold. “Shoot the monkey,” Johnson says, breaking a long silence from his end of the room. “Every time, every fight, shoot the monkey.” ® ubs.com/team/mogul ubs.com/team/mogul CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association® in the United States of America and worldwide. For designation disclosures, visit ubs.com/us/ en/designation-disclosures. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association® in the United States of America and worldwide. For designation disclosures, visit ubs.com/us/ advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand en/designation-disclosures. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. © UBS 2018. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. CJ-UBS-912846366 Exp.: 01312019 the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. © UBS 2018. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. CJ-UBS-912846366 Exp.: 01312019 Kelly Rogers Global Real Estate Advisor 435-640-7600 KellyRogers.evusa.com | kelly.rogers@evusa.com ©2016 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved. Each brokerage independently owned and operated. Engel & Völkers and its independent License Partners are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act. |