Jens Hilgers
27 Mar 2026Granola $125M Founder Joins, Sora Dies, Epic Layoffs, Stunt of The Week
Bitkraft's Jens Hilgers: Founding ESL & Esports History
Jens, founding general partner at Bitkraft, recounts how 1990s Quake LAN play, IRC communities, and user-generated mods led him to found ESL. He describes being far too early — 50 people showed up for a pro series final in a Cologne basement — until new generations of gamers filled the LanXess Arena by 2012. He argues esports was overhyped in 2015–17 when too much VC money inflated salaries and publisher leagues distorted an organic ecosystem, though underlying viewership and entertainment quality keep trending up.
Jens on World Models, Blue Owl & the Metaverse
Jens clarifies that Bitkraft is not focused on world models and explains that Blue Owl's strategic stake in the firm was about growing the platform, not dictating investment focus. He argues generative world models could disrupt game development, valuations, and exit paths within a few years, with multiplayer generative worlds a few years behind single-player. He frames the metaverse as many technologies converging — citing Matt Ball and pointing to Roblox as the closest example today — with blockchain mattering for asset ownership and agentic transactions.