Rode Creator of the Year Award Winners Include Photo and Tech YouTuber Becca Farsace

In September, Rode announced the $250,000 Creator of the Year Awards. The competition awarded creators across 22 categories, including one overall winner, Gawx Art, taking home $20,000 in cash and $30,000 worth of prizes. Rode has announced winners, including a familiar face and friend of PetaPixel, Becca Farsace.

Farsace, who left The Verge in August, took top honors in the “Gear & Tech Reviews” category, earning herself $5,000 in cash and a prize pack worth over $1,600. Alongside the judges selecting Farsace to win the category, the People’s Choice award went to audio/video enthusiast Tom Buck.

Farsace tells PetaPixel she doesn’t know what will be in the prize pack yet, although it will feature equipment from the competition’s sponsors, which includes big names like Atomos, Fujifilm, Nanlite, Obsbot, and more. “I have to assume there is a microphone [in the pack], which will be very helpful, as I never feel like my audio setup is good enough.”

As for her monetary prize, which could go toward a fresh new mic if there isn’t one in the prize pack, Farsace is keen to upgrade the lens she uses on her venerable Sony a7C camera. Her current lens “works fine” but has a lot of vignette that must be corrected during post-processing.

“I have been eyeing the Sony 24-50mm f/2.8 G for a while,” Farsace says.

Farsace notes that her friend and former colleague, Andrew Marino, told her about the Rode Creator Awards.

“It was free to enter, so I said, ‘Why not?'”

As soon as she learned she had won, she called Andrew to thank him.

“None of this would have happened without him thinking of me,” Farsace says. “Which further proves that community is the tops.”

This appreciation for the community carries over to how Farsace’s solo journey has gone since leaving The Verge. At the time, she cited a desire to own her work as a significant reason for her departure. But the change, like any significant move, came with risks.

So far, “there have been many signs I made the right choice,” Farsace says, characterizing her Rode Creator Awards victory as “certainly one of them.”

“But I am blessed that my fans remind me so often that they believe in me too,” she adds. Farsace has big plans for 2025, and the prize will certainly help. “I want to get this show on the road, literally. Part of my ‘take tech outside’ ethos is to get to more parts of the world where tech means and operates differently. So I am hoping 2025 gets me ever further out there.”

Since going all-in on her YouTube journey, Farsace has launched a Patreon, where her supporters can get behind-the-scenes looks and build a community. “By far, the best part of launching a Patreon has been getting to see and hear what everyone else thinks about the tech world,” she concludes.

Here at PetaPixel, we write a lot about competitions, and the Rode Creator Awards is undoubtedly one of the biggest among them. It’s always nice to hear about the victors and their plans for their prizes. In Farsace’s case, she plans to upgrade some of her gear so she can deliver even better content to her rapidly growing group of supporters.