SMOSH Alum Mari Takahashi Named Co-Owner Of Esports Org Spacestation Gaming

Esports organization Spacestation Gaming has named SMOSH alum Mari “AtomicMari” Takahashi as co-owner, joining founder Shaun “Shonduras” McBride, Sean Holladay and Peter Kitch.

“Mari’s incomparable experience and ‘now-how’ in this space made her an obvious choice as our new co-owner,” said McBride. “Having worked with her in the past and experienced first-hand what she brings to the table, I can’t wait to once again work alongside her and continue to build one of the best esports organizations in the business.”

Established in 2017, Spacestation Gaming is a professional esports organization competition in several esports titles including Rainbow Six: Siege, Rocket League, PUBG, Apex Legends, Smash Ultimate and iRacing.

As co-owner, Takahashi will work with the Spacestation team to continue developing the organization’s presence in the esports scene. With her background and recognition in digital media and gaming, Takahashi  will work with McBride to expand the creator and community aspects of Spacestation Gaming, as well as pursue further esports championships across multiple video game titles. Takahashi told Dealine that she also hopes to up Spacestation’s content game.

“I would love to bring to the table what I’ve always loved with gaming – which is trying to mash it up with real life as much as possible,” she told Deadline. “I would love to bring that type of energy of mashing the digital world as we know it into a tangible world as well, and I think that esports as whole already does that.”

The two-time Streamy winner comes to Spacestation already a renowned digital content creator. In 2017 Takahashi, was named one of Forbes’ Top Influencers In Gaming, during her 10-year tenure with YouTube powerhouse SMOSH. She co-founded the sister channel SMOSH Games, producing and starring in shows like Maricraft, Smosh Pit Weekly and Operation: Open World.

In 2020, she served as the correspondent for Polygon’s Speedrun on Quibi, playing games and speaking with talent including Kevin Smith, Terry Crews and Jordan Fisher. In addition to digital media credits, Takahashi has previously done commercial work for Ericsson, Microsoft, Samsung and Verizon. She has performed hosted duties for Netflix and Paramount. She has also made appearances on Disney XD, Popular Science and CBS’s Survivor.

“As a longtime fan and avid participant of the esports industry, I’ve had my eye on Spacestation Gaming for a while,” said Takahashi. “I deeply respect everything Shonduras and the team have created, so with my love of all things esports, passion for space travel, and shift into
the business side of the industry, when the opportunity to join them as co-owner presented itself, there was no way I could pass it up.”

Her naming as a co-owner at Spacestation comes at a time when the gaming industry is undergoing a reckoning, with current and former employees –specifically women and people of color – of major publishers speaking out about workplace harassment and abuse. Takahashi told Deadline that as a woman of color, her major title at Spacestation comes with responsibility and opportunity to shift the conversation.

“It’s hard to measure how humbling but how important it is to be in a position where I can not only kick off conversations that are important, but have them with the understanding that I have people backing me as well,” she said. “It’s so important to see a person you could look up to be in a certain position. It’s something we didn’t have the luxury growing up with. I think the more people are able envision it and see it in real time, the more it’s going to be easy to aspire for that as a real attainable goal.”

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