Paul Capoccia made a name for himself in the worldwide community of Esports and created a video game set for release in the fall.
The 31-year-old from Dunmore says he achieved this by saying yes to opportunities.
Esports — short for electronic sports — involves multiple players and connect people all over the world. Capoccia dove into competitive videos games roughly ten years ago.
“The passion in Esports is really what drove me to it,” Capoccia said.
He connected with people in the industry and landed an opportunity commentating games on an international platform.
He says he remembers thinking: “I love this thing, I love doing it, and, oh my god, there's actually millions of people out there that also love doing it too.”
The Dunmore native founded the Esports program at Marywood University and also coached collegiate players at Lackawanna College.
After learning a thing or two about Esports team management, he created a video game that immerses players in the behind-the-scenes of managing an Esports team.
Esports Team Manager
Capoccia’s company The Brain Trust developed the Esports Team Manager game, set to release in fall 2025.
He describes it as a game within a game, in which players can manage players, finances and more.
“You'll be playing the role of an owner, GM [or] coach of a fictitious esports team,” he explained. “You might be bringing them to scrimmages, getting scouting reports, trading players, changing the price of the hot dog at the stadium. You do all those sorts of things for this team that you're managing in the game.”
Capoccia brought in a co-founder from the U.K., hired a few part-time employees and has partners around the globe.
Actual competing teams from North America and the Nordic countries will be featured in the game, he said.
“So it's largely an international company, even though we're just in a small office space in my apartment in Dunmore," he said.
In the future, the company may develop other games and a second version of this one.
“Our goal is just really to be a grassroots effort that grows into something real big,” he said. “And, you know, really build this into a studio that can sustain itself and stay in the area.”
Saying 'yes'
Capoccia has degrees in english and communications, but says one coding class he took as a student at Marywood helped him gain the skills to be a coder later on.
“The course was built around a book called 'Introduction to Game Development,'” he recalled. “It's like riding a bike. I really didn't forget those foundational best practices.”
After learning more about coding on his own, Capoccia joined the TechCelerator program, created by the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, which he described as a massive help.
The ten-week program administered by TecBRIDGE helps entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing a technology-based business.
“Techcelerator, in so many ways, was an opportunity to go, ‘I have this idea, should I quit my job and upheave my entire life to pursue it?’” he said. “For me and for a lot of us… the answer was yes.”
He said yes to the coding class, commentating and coaching Esports, the Techcelerator program and his business idea.
"Saying yes to things opened a lot of doors for me," he said.
The game can now be wish listed on Steam, which is a way to keep track of the game's release, and will be available to download for PC this fall.
