Design Philosophy: Pursue Excellence
All my life, I’ve held one fundamental belief: that with forethought and intention, digital media and gaming can be used as platforms to amplify personal & societal development. I’ve seen gamers fail at the game of life all my life; grow up supervised only by a game console or succumb to the habit developing monetization practices of greedy game developers. At the same time, I have also seen video games bring communities together in powerful ways I never would have thought possible and expose gamers to a level of competition that has pushed them to develop a life-changing discipline.
I’ve spent my life seeking an advanced understanding of the socio-cultural, psychological, and design thinking principles that can tip the scales and unlock the transformative power of digital media, video gaming, and esports to build character, strengthen communities, and unleash creativity.
Results
When I started as the Director of Esports and Head Coach at the University of Akron in January of 2018, I was tasked with using my professional esports experience and graduate training to design, implement, and manage the first-ever comprehensive collegiate gaming department.
In October, 2018 the Zips Esports department launched with the opening of 3 intentionally designed state-of-the-art gaming facilities to house our varsity, club, and recreational esports programs. In the first year, these programs engaged 7% of the student population and fostered the formation of over 14 new student organizations with 700 total members of the Club Esports Program.
As head coach of the varsity program, I was responsible for recruiting, trying out, selecting, and coaching 44 varsity players for 5 varsity esports teams to compete in League of Legends, CSGO, Overwatch, Rocket League, Hearthstone. All 5 teams qualified for post-season competition in their first year, four teams qualified for national playoffs, and the Akron Rocket League team qualified for the National Final Four twice; winning the National Championship in Spring 2019.
Background
As an undergraduate student of Psychology at Saint Michael's College, I initially focused on experimental psychology and research methods; my experimental research in nicotine induced amotivation has been published in Psychopharmacology and presented for the Eastern Psychological Association, the Vermont Genetics Network, and the Society for Neurosciences.
As I began to recognize the power of esports I transitioned my focus to sports psychology and began my esports career as an amateur streamer and coach of amateur League of Legends teams. Eventually I began working as a content creator, caster, and analyst in the Overwatch scene where I've had the opportunity to collaborate with organizations such as Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft, Discord, & ESL. I helped build the Competitive Overwatch League Discord community with the organization Softlocke and served as Director of Production for the Competitive Overwatch League weekly esports broadcasts.
As a graduate student of Emergent Media at Champlain College, I specialized in critical media theory and online community building. My graduate thesis, Authenticating: Genuine Expression in the Management of Video Game Communities, is one of the first academic examinations of the practice of community building in the context of the video game industry; a multi-billion dollar business I have a personal passion for and that has implications for millions who interact with it on a daily basis.