Growing up in a country where traditional sports like basketball reign supreme, Gutierrez found his niche in video games, seeing them not just as a form of entertainment but also as a different social platform. 

“What really got me hooked with gaming was when you-versus-computer changed to you-versus-other-people,” the CEO of Tier One Entertainment shares. But it wasn’t just about the competition; it was also about connection. “It became social and competitive, it became generally just more fun.” This sense of community became the bedrock of his future endeavours.

After years of connections and experience in the gaming and events industry as a gamer, shoutcaster and even graphic designer, Gutierrez took the plunge and founded Tier One Entertainment in 2017. Gutierrez, along with entrepreneur and fellow Gen.T honouree Brian Lim and model-gamer-cosplayer Alodia Gosiengfiao, set out to change the narrative surrounding gaming in the Philippines when the prospect of playing competitive video games for a living might have sounded silly. They envisioned Tier One Entertainment as a company that could not only manage esports teams but also elevate gaming to the mainstream.

Read more: How big is the esports community in the Philippines?

“I’ve always seen myself as a leader and someone who wants to at least fight for my own philosophy, but I never knew how to do it until I met these people,” he says.

Gutierrez took inspiration and mentorship from industry pioneers, including Ronald Robins of Mineski Global, a Manila-based esports company established in 2009. “He actually was the one who started the whole esports dream in the Philippines,” Gutierrez says, explaining that Robins’ cyber cafe franchise provided esports gamers a safe and reliable place to hone their skills. “[Robins] gave me the idea that starting my own business is the key to achieving what I want for the industry.”

The esports landscape has undergone a dramatic evolution in the last decade. In the early 2010s, esports was still a niche scene in Manila, with the player base dominated by a small community of PC and console gamers, who gathered in bustling, budget-friendly internet cafes, where the sounds of intense competition filled the air.

“Back then, it was probably one in ten Filipinos who were gamers, or one in 12.” Fast forward to today, and almost half of the population is gaming. “We now have over 40 million gamers in the Philippines. That’s one in every two or two and a half people playing,” Gutierrez says, adding that the accessibility of mobile games contributed to the jump.

Read more: Tryke Gutierrez on the growth of esports in the Philippines

He also acknowledges how public perception of gaming has evolved. “The perception of gaming was negative back then—something that will ruin your career,” he says. “People just didn’t know how to regulate it. They didn’t know how to manage addiction.” Today, though, the story is very different. “Now, being a gamer is cool. If you’re a gamer, you’re accepted.”

In building Tier One, Gutierrez aimed to break these stereotypes. He envisioned the company as the ultimate launchpad for gaming talents, a community championing the culture of esports through innovative content and a commitment to elevating the gaming experience.

Today, it nurtures over 1,200 gaming talents, both new and established.

“It’s important to set up standards in terms of what you want your young talents to be,” he says. One significant challenge in managing esports talent, he observes, is their tendency towards immaturity. “I’m not saying immaturity is a derogatory term, it’s just nature. People don’t have enough lessons in their lives and that’s why they tend to be immature. And sometimes the challenge with a lot of esports companies and talent management is that they level down to the immaturity of the people they manage instead of making them become professionals.”

Read more: Secretlab co-founders Ian Ang and Alaric Choo on the meteoric rise of their gaming chair company

This challenge pushed Gutierrez to prove his wild idea—drawing inspiration from the K-pop business model, which he believes transforms talent into icons through meticulous curation and branding. “When we started Tier One, our vision was to apply the K-pop entertainment model to gaming and esports. It takes multi-millions to prove it,” he says. But the gamble paid off.

Like K-pop management agencies, Tier One finds raw talent, packages them into stars and builds brands around them. They craft a unique identity around each talent, creating distinct intellectual properties that resonate with fans. “We want them to be masterful of what they’re doing, but at the same time presentation is also important to us.”

Read more: How K-pop fan culture is reshaping business strategies and redefining brand loyalty

Some of Tier One’s talents making waves in the gaming scene include Bianca, or Biancake, who has over 4 million followers and is known as the Philippines’ first female shoutcaster and a top Dota 2 streamer; Cong TV, with nearly 20 million subscribers who built a YouTube empire with his humour and is expanding into gaming with the same passion; and Dexie Diaz, a top female streamer with 7 million followers who captivates audiences with her playthroughs of popular games like Apex Legends and Dead by Daylight.

Gutierrez’s path as a CEO has been anything but straightforward, and his success is rooted in two key factors: passion and people. “No business is easy to run, but if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, then you don’t really mind working so much for it,” he emphasises. But he’s also quick to point out that while passion is a powerful driver for some, it’s not the only path to success. 

Read more: What this tech founder realised after his previous business failed

For him, the real magic happens when passion meets effective leadership, which is why his focus on building strong teams is equally important. “You have only 24 hours in a day,” he notes, emphasising the limits of time and skillset. But leadership, he argues, is infinitely scalable. The more leaders you can cultivate, the more potential your organisation has to grow. “If you can lead 150 people, imagine what’s possible with 1,000,” he says, underscoring the idea that building a team of leaders is essential for any business aiming for exponential growth.

“Being able to become a leader of leaders should be the goal of a lot of business people because if you really want to scale, you need more leaders around you.” 

As a leader himself, however, Gutierrez notes a duality that often leaves him feeling like he’s living two different lives. On his social media persona, he says: “I always try to show that I’m just cool and chill, I’m having fun because I need to be the ambassador of gaming and esports.” He emphasises that a fun and chill persona is crucial for connecting with the community, but adds that the reality is “there are a lot of days that are not fun. People would think I’m always playing with my talents and just watching games, but 80 per cent of the time, I’m in a meeting or in front of Excel sheets”.

Reflecting on the challenges he’s faced—from launching Tier One during a stable market, weathering a pandemic and now navigating a global recession—Gutierrez’s ability to adapt has been important. “There’s no academic course that will teach you how to become a CEO,” he says. “You have to be able to move things around to survive and adapt to the new times.”

If he wasn’t running Tier One, Gutierrez says he would probably be a professor teaching about esports. “I love the energy of students wanting to learn,” he says. “My dream is to be teaching, sharing my experiences and knowledge.”

This aspiration isn’t merely a distant fantasy; it’s a reality he’s already crafting within Tier One. In many ways, he’s already living his dream, changing the gaming landscape while inspiring the next generation.

Read more: Why female gamers are fed up with being male fantasies

Here, we ask Gutierrez a few quickfire questions to learn what truly drives him.

How would you describe what you do in one sentence?

Tryke Gutierrez (TK): I earn from video games.

What’s your mantra in life?

TK: Life is a work in progress.

What’s your favourite game to play in your downtime?

TK: That’s probably the hardest question. Um, Dota 2.

What’s your most used gaming term or phrase in real life?

TK: Game. I just say game, you know, like if somebody asks something, I say game.

Founder Stories is Tatler’s content series dedicated to discovering the untold stories and challenges of today’s entrepreneurs on their climb to the top.

NOW READ 

Grills Gaming’s Tiffani Lim on charting her path to victory in the esports arena and beyond

Turning her pain into power, Cheryl Wee is on a mission to build a holistic wellness ecosystem

The Singapore startup using AI to transform traditional health screenings