Douglas Souza was one of the most outstanding athletes at the Tokyo Olympics: he gained a following on social media and became a powerful voice against homophobia. Recently, when the player Maurício Souza commented on the fact that the current Superman, Joe Kent, has revealed himself to be bisexual, he criticized.
But Douglas Souza, currently a player for the Italian team Vibo Valentia, has also dedicated himself to the gamer universe. Since November, he has joined Facebook Gaming’s creative team with a mission to bring more than 950 hours of live content to the platform. In addition, the partnership also has more than 100 videos and exclusive reels that will be published, over the course of a year, in the @douglasouza.
“I’ve played since I was a kid, I think I was about eight years old or so, when I got my first Nintendo from my mother on Children’s Day”, said the athlete in an exclusive interview with PROPMARK.
You already have a history in the gamer universe. What are your favorite games and, by any chance, do you remember which one you played first?
I’ve been playing since I was a kid, I think I was about eight years old or so, when I got my first Nintendo from my mom on Children’s Day. I don’t remember exactly what the first game I played was, but I remember the one I played the most at the time, which was Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong. Today, my favorite games are LOL (League of Legends), who follow me in lives knows I do it every day on Facebook Gamming, and Valorant, which is a FPS game from Riot too.
How have the lives on Facebook been?
We started on November 1st, and I’m super happy because I’ve been a streamer for about a year now. And anyone who follows me knows that one of my goals was to be an official Facebook Gamming streamer. So for me it’s an honor to be part of this team. I am completely in love with the platform. I really like my chat, they are wonderful, super polite, they are super good people, who meet the values I try to convey to people. We have a lot of fun, we talk about absolutely everything on the live. We play a lot LOL, in addition to the gameplay, because I’m not a League of Legends Pro Player, nor any electronic game, but for sure what I like the most is this interaction with people live.
In addition to the courts, do you also intend to follow the path of games?
As Pro Player no; Pro Player, only in volleyball (laughs). But from E-games, I intend to follow just as a streamer. I like to produce content aimed at entertainment, not competition.
You were one of the athletes who gained the most following after the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, which certainly attracted the attention of brands. Until today, which brands have you done actions for?
Yes, it drew a lot of attention from the brands, which was good. Because my goal is to reach the maximum number of people with my content, bringing themes about my trajectory, mainly serving as representation for the LGBTQIA+ audience, which unfortunately still suffers from a lot of prejudice in society. I am very happy to see that my story and my work are inspiring people and brands. I’ve done actions with several brands, such as XP Investimentos, Nivea, Mentos, Braskem, LivUp, Perdigão, Submarino, Riot Games, Cloudshop, Facebook, Mastercard and Netshoes.
Are you often involved in creating content for brands?
Yes, because it’s a two-way job. The brand gives us a briefing on what it needs and we think of some content that fits the proposal. At this point, we analyze if we will do it on Instagram, like Reels, Stories, if we publish it on TikTok, if we are going to do something funny. So it’s a shared production, actually. They give us what they need and I put a little bit of my own way into advertising.
