The world of Esports continues to become a growing industry. Whether it’s music that’s inspired by games, brands creating designs inspired by game characters, or casters who explain moves as the game is happening, some would argue that there’s something for everyone in the sports culture that is going global. For 9^th grader Jordan Shay, Esports has given him an outlet to not only play a game he loves, but also a platform to show off his artistic skills.

Last month, Jordan designed a logo that was selected as the winner for the Pennsylvania Scholastic Esports League (PSEL) logo competition. Mr. Jim Flick, General Manager for the AHCCS Esports team, heard about the competition through their partnership with The Chester County IU, who organizes statewide competitions for NASEF (North America Scholastic Esports Federation) teams in order to grow Esports. After sharing it with the high school Esports team, Jordan was motivated to enter the competition. His design was chosen over several other submissions by the PSEL leadership team. The logo’s cohesive qualities are what made leadership decide it was the best representation of PSEL’s vision. Jordan shares the inspiration behind his logo mainly came from current NASEF designs that are sleek and modern.

“I wanted to give it a modern feel without making the logo look too busy,” Jordan says. “My hope was for it to look sleek, which is in line with the overall culture centered around Esports. When someone creates a game, they try to make it as simple and clean as possible. I made sure the logo had sharp and clean lines so that it would give you the feeling of quality as if you were looking at a game.”

The competition required Jordan to design a logo using 3 specific colors, lime, black, and white. As the winner, Jordan won 10 HyperX Headsets for his Esports team, a very popular headset for gamers. Jordan started designing this year when he needed thumbnails for his YouTube channel and has been hooked ever since. He then expanded his designs to banners and logos, and even creates them for other YouTubers free of charge. He plans to get more experience and build up his portfolio so he can eventually ask for commissions for his art one day.

“The first few people I designed for really liked my work, which is what led me to take on projects more regularly for other YouTubers,” Jordan says. “I started learning about what makes images appealing by studying other logos and designs and applied that to my own work. I am self-taught for the most part but am currently taking a graphic design class with my amazing AHCCS teacher Ms. Renninger.”

Jordan is the Team Captain for Achievement House’s high school Esports team that plays the game Valorant. He is active in organizing times for the group to play together and is always trying to find opportunities for them to enter tournaments. Jordan says that he joined the team because he wanted to take advantage of the many prospects video games can bring.

“Esports is something that I play both competitively and casually, and it’s a very good way to have fun while still using my brain to make plans and play tactically,” Jordan says. “I just started playing for the school’s team this year and plan to continue playing well into the future.”

Mr. Flick shares how much of an asset Jordan has been to the team this year.

“I have been excited to watch Jordan’s impact on others this Fall,” Mr. Flick says. “He really has a passion for getting the team together and a willingness to help others that want to play better.”

Interested in joining the Achievement House Esports team? Email Mr. Flick at jflick@achievementcharter.com!