Jest0pher

After I graduated from Full Sail University in March, the torch was passed to the next roster so they could continue competing. I stayed involved over the summer and kept in touch with the team.

As the new academic year approached, I was offered a coaching role with the Rainbow Six roster. I accepted because I felt my experience with the game and my time as the team’s former captain had prepared me well for it. As captain, my teammates had already been coming to me for help with the game, strategy, and improvement, so coaching felt like a natural next step.

My role was eventually discontinued because there were not enough eligible players to maintain a full roster.

The staff at Armada generously invited me back to Florida to work an esports event. The goal was to help me gain experience in esports production while also giving me an opportunity to meet people and build connections within the industry.

The event was run by XP League, one of the largest youth esports leagues in the United States. It brought together the top teams from across the country for an in-person tournament to crown champions in each game.

The games played at the event were Valorant, Overwatch, Rocket League, Apex Legends, and Fortnite.

I helped out in several different areas throughout the event. My work ranged from general setup and equipment troubleshooting to gameplay observation and a number of smaller tasks that came up throughout the event. It was a great opportunity to get a look at what goes on behind the scenes of a large esports event.

While working the 2023 North American Finals, I approached the owner of one of the teams that was local to my area. I made a connection with them and followed up after the event. From there, I was invited to coach their Valorant team because of my experience playing and coaching shooter games.

Over the next two years, I coached several different versions of the roster. Players came and went, and the team changed quite a bit, but my coaching philosophy stayed the same: identify problems, find ways to fix them, and help the players understand why those changes would make them better.

Grind Gaming Arena shut down following the conclusion of the 2025 North American Finals. This brought my time as the team’s Valorant coach to an end, but it also gave me a lot of experience and opened the door for me to continue coaching in the future.

The staff at Full Sail Armada invited me back to Florida once again, this time to work the NACE Grand Finals. Unlike the XP League Finals, this was a collegiate esports event hosted at Full Sail University, which gave me the opportunity to work in a different part of the esports industry and around a different group of players, staff, and production professionals.

I was invited specifically because of my experience with Rainbow Six: Siege. My primary responsibility was observing matches, but I was also brought in to help with the broader production whenever needed. For the Rainbow Six final, I was trusted to take on the role of Gameplay Director and operate the main broadcast feed, which was a significant step up from my previous experience as an observer.

Working alongside NACE staff, broadcast talent, production staff, and collegiate teams gave me another opportunity to learn how professional live esports productions operate. It also allowed me to continue building relationships with people throughout the collegiate esports scene.

My experience at the 2025 North American Finals was very different from my previous two events. This time, I was there as a coach for Grind Gaming Arena rather than as part of the production staff. I was brought in to coach our Apex Legends team after the team’s usual coach was unable to attend, giving me the opportunity to experience the event from the competitive side.

I was excited to return to an event that had played such a big role in my esports experience, especially now that I was coming back as a coach. I also came down a day early to help with venue setup and catch up with the people I had met through my previous work at the event.

During the competition, my focus was on supporting the Apex Legends team and helping them perform as well as possible. While the team did not finish as highly as we had hoped, I was proud of the effort the players put in. My job was not just to focus on the result, but to help them stay positive, learn from their mistakes, and make the most of the opportunity they had earned.

When I wasn’t coaching, I continued helping wherever I was needed. I supported the other Grind Gaming Arena teams, assisted XP League staff, and returned to the production side of the event to help with observation and technical support. Coming back to the same event two years later and being able to contribute from both the competitive and production sides was a great way to see how much my experience in esports had grown.