Titus Walker is reshaping the landscape of competitive gaming through UELesports.com, a groundbreaking platform that serves as a hub for gaming leagues, tournaments and community engagement. As founder and CEO of the Ultimate Gamers League (UEL), Walker has built an inclusive environment where players of all levels can compete and thrive. His vision extends beyond gaming, he’s creating opportunities for underrepresented groups while developing the next generation of digital athletes and entrepreneurs.
What’s it like to build a gaming league, and why do you see this as an opportunity for young people?
It is very rewarding, it is extremely tough, it is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, but it is rewarding. It’s just interesting because it’s trying to help people see in themselves what you see in them, and a lot of times they don’t believe it themselves. Think like back to any league that’s been created, from the NFL, NBA, WWE, these were just people getting together and creating something special, creating a league around a sport, and eventually it turned into what it is now.
Share your vision for players joining your league and universe.
I’m the CEO and founder of the Ultimate End Gamers League or UEL for short, the vision of it is creating a one-stop shop for gaming as a holistic gamer. Think like UFC and gaming having a baby, and creating this super sport for gaming where the goal is to be the best well-rounded gamer and compete across all different genres of games, fighting games, sports, shooting, racing and strategy games while developing real life skills in those games.
When you think about young brothers rapping in hip hop, would you imagine we’d be further along in gaming by now?
The biggest issue that’s existed is the same thing that happened in music originally in hip hop, a lot of the access was kind of limited, especially in hip hop, because we didn’t have the means to have a massive studio on every block like we do now. Gaming followed that same chain, it’s predominantly white and Asian, and so it’s very difficult to get the culture kind of mixed into gaming, but accessibility is becoming a lot more prevalent now with mobile gaming and other avenues of gaming.
The big issue that kind of hedged itself very prevalently from 2019 to 2024, is the idea that Esports has to be almost not owned by anybody, and the problem is, developers own the game. If the game is owned, then how do you create a sport around it? Because at some point the developer of that game can kind of control what happens in that sport, and that makes it very difficult to really create a long-lasting sport, because for the developer it’s all about profit, but for the sport it’s all about sport, and those are two different things.
How should young players view the opportunity to join your Esports league?
At the end of the day, when you think of a League, you think of an organizer, the League is as important as the players in the League. The NBA wasn’t the NBA until you had Kareem, Magic and Bird, and that changes the game because people fall in love. They normally don’t fall in love with the League or the organizer, they fall in love with either the team or the players on the team because they can relate to that, it’s like, “oh, this is my team, these are my players on my team”.
Those stories become very important, and so picturing yourself as that person right now is more realistic than it’s ever been in any sport that has a worldwide player base because it is such a small pool of people playing, but at the same time it’s a small pool of people looking to play because right now it’s an open landscape. It’s like NBA in the sixties, like you could get in if you could dribble the basketball at all, you don’t even have to know how to shoot, you just got to dribble, and that can continue in gaming up until you reach a certain point.
What cities do you have franchises in, and where do you anticipate the biggest growth?
We have franchises in LA, New York, New Jersey, Vegas, Virginia, Maryland, DC, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Atlanta. Atlanta, I would say, is the Mecca, I think Atlanta is going to be the hottest gaming city, it has the most support from government, it’s had the most support from the people themselves, the players and the organizers, the developers, I’ve seen the most support there as well.
It really is like the easiest place to do business when it comes to gaming, and I’d say that would be the first place. If I was to set up shop anywhere it would be it would be there. We have Michigan, I do want to point out we have two in Africa as well, in Nigeria.
What advantages would a UEL League bring to a city?
In your city the next generation, 98% of them are gamers, no matter who you’re looking at in that generation, they’re probably a gamer. Having some sort of pinnacle in gaming to reach for in your city becomes the reason to be there, whether it’s for the parents, the kids, the pinnacle of gaming needs to be in every area, so that you can have something to strive for. I always think about it like this, I always say if the NBA didn’t exist, there’d just be a lot of tall black people, white people, too, but a lot of tall black people with not a whole lot to do.
That type of opportunity was created for tens of thousands of people over the time, but then you think about the coaches and the trainers, and that sport has really changed so many lives. We already have 3 billion gamers, it’s a 300 to 400 billion dollar industry, if you’re counting the peripherals and stuff like that. With it being the future, you want to be ahead of the curve in your city, in your state, to make sure that you have something that the kids coming up in this next generation can strive for, that still teaches them so much.
How do you see yourself 20 years from now as an institution builder?
When I was a kid, I used to always say I just want to create opportunity, that was it for me, I could see that in my father. That was what he wanted, to create opportunity, and he never really got a chance to do so, but growing up, I kind of wanted to fill those shoes and create opportunity. It drove me, it’s always driven me.
When I got to a certain pinnacle in real estate, all I wanted to do was just pull people up with me, where I was at in real estate development had less than 0.1% African American, it was bad, and that type of opportunity to make 300, 400 thousand dollars a year just isn’t granted to us. I found a way, kick the door in and then, now that I’m there, my drive was, I got to do good so that when it comes time, I can bring people with me.
What would be the title and challenges in your speech to HBCU students?
The title would be “Outwork Your Competition.” I think working out is one thing, but focusing on outworking, if you work harder at something, then you will be better than the others around you, and challenge one would be to do the small things that most, if not all people, won’t do. There was so much time that I would put into just annoying research, stuff like who’s looking this stuff up? It’s numbers that nobody’s gonna pay attention to or nobody really cares about, like the average number of games played by a gamer in a year is 24, nobody knows that statistic, because nobody’s taking the time to actually look into it, but that statistic is the reason I created this league, and so I would challenge them to do those things.
Challenge number two would be to understand who you are, and challenge yourself to be the best you you can be, and understand that no matter what you do or what others think, or no matter what someone says, they can’t take who you are away from you once you know who that is.
What are your thoughts on Twitch and the future of streaming?
If you follow the numbers like I do, I follow them very religiously, it is on a downward trend failing slow, because they’re pouring tons of money into it. If you read their financial, the CEO talks about it, 75% of their viewer base is coming from twitch to watch a specific person consistently, so they’re not browsing twitch, which creates a problem because the people that are trying to make their way up twitch can’t do that anymore. I think that the future of streaming is yet to be found, I think that currently twitch is in the lead, but I do not think that lasts much longer, I think Amazon will have to buy something else in order for that to work.
How can business owners get involved with UEL? And what are your expansion plans for the league?
We’ll have 16 starting in season 10, which is our 5th anniversary season, we’ve been over 5 years now, but this will be the anniversary of the first season starting. For that business owner, one buying a franchise in the League, you can buy a franchise team. We are expanding in season 10, so that’ll be a part of it, we’ll expand and add 2 new teams, 2 will come from Africa, and then 2 from the US. The states haven’t been selected yet for the US but the states over in Africa.
Option number 2, we actually go public through Start Engine within the next week or so, so you can invest through there, we’re only raising about 3 million, it’s not a huge raise, but it is a good way to get in and get invested.
