Senior Evan Braidwood took Dr. Julie Lanzillo's advice to heart. "Sometimes, you have to crash the party," she told him. And that's just what Braidwood did in September.

He and his business partner had just launched a new venture in July. RequestGG.com is a website that allows amateur gamers to pay a fee to play professional creators in Rocket League, the video game that brought the two entrepreneurs together.

[Editor's note: Non-gamers should know that Rocket League is a high-powered video game that mixes arcade-style soccer with rocket-powered vehicles. GG is a gaming term for "good game."]

Every RequestGG creator has full autonomy to set the prices, which currently vary from $10 to $75 per session. Creators get 80% of the fee with 20% going to the business partners.

Both Braidwood and his English co-founder, Elliott Cannon, are video editors for top Rocket League YouTubers. They became friends through mutual connections and, in March, began wondering why there was no platform to let everyday players test their skills against the pros.

For the next four months, they went to work.

"We didn't tell anyone about it until we knew 100 percent that it was going to happen," Braidwood recalls. "When we had a website, we built a CRM of creators in Rocket League and started reaching out to people we edit for, explaining how it could help them."

They recruited 23 creators to come on board, and that's when they decided to crash the party, the Rocket League World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. Pitting 20 teams from across the globe in competition from September 17-20, the event drew 10,000 Rocket League gamers and creators to the Dickies Arena over four days.

"There were teams in attendance from North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and South America," says Braidwood. "We knew this was going to be a huge opportunity for us and wanted to make the most of it."

The pair invested in their business trip. They printed RequestGG stickers, flew to Fort Worth, donned branded shirts, and hit the floor for four days on nonstop selling.

To create a buzz in the arena, the partners created a scavenger hunt by printing cards with photos of five creators and a space for each one's autograph on them. Fans who collected all five earned a 50% discount on the website. 

"It was an absolute hit," Braidwood smiles. "For three days, we saw people running around, looking for our five creators."

He and Cannon also spent time interacting with professionals that they want to recruit for the website, expanding the competitive options for their clients.

"It was a great investment for the business," Braidwood concludes. "We knew we had to be there. We're building a community."

As of September 22, RequestGG had 750 fans and sold 117 gaming sessions.

The two plan to add other games and make the website more interactive for the fans, perhaps creating profiles of them and listing all the people they've played. Braidwood's vision is for RequestGG to become a social network for esports.

After graduation, he plans to work on the business full time and keep his hand in video editing as a side gig.

"I love working with Elliott, and I can't imagine myself not doing this," he admits. "Running this business feels like a video game the way we run into challenges and surpass different levels."