“Your network is just as important as what you have in your pocket”

When I had the opportunity to sit down with Justin, I was amazed to see everything he had accomplished. At just 17 years old, Justin has fundamentally changed the eSports industry.

Game Changer 1: High School eSports

I would argue that Justin is the person most responsible for the support and legitimization of the high school eSports scene.

Justin joined the Troy High School eSports club, one of the oldest in the nation, when he first began there in his freshman year. By 2016, he was hosting his own events and tournaments for students in the orange county area.

As soon as these events started to gain a degree of prominence, the emails and Facebook messages started. Students from all across the country started asking Justin how they could create a club similar to the one at Troy. He sent them templates and documents he had created in order to help them get off the ground. That’s when it dawned on him, someone needed to create a legitimate organization for high schools to compete within and that’s what he did. Thus, Youth eSports of America was born.

He credits his success in building Youth eSports of America, or YEA for short, to his networking and his location, “SoCal is arguably the best place for eSports, maybe outside of Korea. All the big publishers are around here. Blizzard is in Irvine. Riot is in Santa Monica. Everything is just so close,” By tapping into the markets desire to get direct advertising to the high school eSports market segment, a group that is becoming harder and harder to reach with “traditional” advertising, Justin managed to bring a couple massive companies on board as sponsors of his new organization and with that, it began to blow up.

As of today, Youth eSports of America has 39 different teams competing in its most recent League of Legends league, which has a prize pool of $10,000 and a ton of hardware. The Overwatch league has another 28 teams and a similar prize pool. He recently signed a partnership deal with Esportsrecruiting.com in order to connect high school players with college programs. He has essentially created the high school eSports scene.

Game Changer 2: eSports Education and Stigma Fighting

Arguably, one of Justin’s most important connections is with University of California Irvine (UCI). After fostering the relationship over the summer, Justin put forward a plan to host a groundbreaking event at the similarly groundbreaking UCI eSports center, a massive, 3500 square-foot eSports arena and training facility. His event, which he hosted on September 9th, brought in guests such as Cat Tompkins, PR at iBUYPOWER, and Jason Docton, founder of Anxiety Gaming.

Justin intended to do two things with this program.

Educate student gamers about the possibilities in the industry Fight the stigmas that parents and non-industry professional have in regards to the eSports industry.

His speakers did this through discussing a plethora of issues and topics. These included everything from how to be profitable in the industry to a discussion about mental and physical health. One of the most impactful parts of this though was showing that there is a collegiate demand for eSports and varsity players, “As eSports is getting bigger and bigger, every school is creating their own varsity program because that’s the center of an eSports program… In traditional sports, you can offer Division I, Division II scholarships for football players, basketball players, and eSports is next.”

By doing this, Justin addressed one of the biggest things holding the eSports industry back, stigmas.

Game Changer 3: Community Building

Justin is also working on building stronger communities within the eSports world.

His new app, Meta eSports recently got another round of funding. The app is designed to allow eSports fans to find and interact with communities in an easier and more practical way. The app also allows individuals to host tournaments, lowering the barrier of entry for tournament hosts and allowing for easier access from the competitors' end. Justin explained it by saying, “If someone moves to, say, Seattle, I want them to be able to open the app and find a community of gamers and tournaments that they can join and compete in.”

Justin accredits the recent success of his startup to the team he has built around him, “Definitely join forces. When [people] create projects they want to be the sole owner and things like that, but its gotten to the point where most investors or VCs would rather you have a co-founder or a partner; it’s just much more stable. My co-founder is actually almost twice my age, but just through the connections he’s brought, we’ve been successful. It’s all about building a team because building a team brings value,”

His app is currently available on both the app store and the Google play store.

How He Does It

It’s needless to say that Justin’s life has become a bit more hectic since starting his companies. He now has nearly no free time and each day is rigorously planned out. Despite not having the time to browse YouTube or Reddit like he used to, Justin doesn’t miss it, “I think that just kind of waking up every morning and being excited to get up and being excited about the day kind of replaces any YouTube videos you were planning to watch… you don’t really miss [the free time] in a way because it doesn’t hold sentimental value, it’s just a placeholder in your life.” Justin recognized very early on that as long as he prioritizes and plans ahead he has more than enough time to get the things that truly matter to him done. For example, networking.

With over 1300 connections on LinkedIn, Justin has been extremely successful on the platform, especially when you consider that he has only been on it for about 8 months. His strategy, yet again, relies on the connections he makes in person. For Justin, it’s as simple as making sure that when he’s thanking someone he’s worked with, that he tags that person. That person will then share that content to their massive follower base, spreading Justin’s profile. It’s an approach that seems to be working for him. Justin also thinks that LinkedIn is a great resource specifically for people interested in the eSports industry, “I think that right now, people in the eSports industry are still very accessible because people don’t feel like they are some kind of superstar that can’t be touched”. Justin’s mentality of just ask propelled him forward in the industry and netted him connections with some of the most influential people in the world of eSports.

He also is an avid believer in building a strong personal brand. “I’m a high school student running a high school eSports league because I can market that. It’s not fake or anything, but it’s a story that people can understand.”

Conclusion

Justin’s parting messages were very clear.

To students: Don’t be afraid to fail. You have to put your ego aside and put yourself out there. Do things that you love to do and make connections.

To people not connected to the eSports industry: It’s going to be massive. Don’t underestimate it

To everyone: Mentors are critical. If you’re able to find someone that is willing to help make connections for you, that’s huge.

Overall, Justin is someone to keep your eye on. He is just starting and has already been successful in many ways and many places, but I don’t think he has even come close to reaching his full potential and that’s crazy. Regardless of who you are, where you are, or how old you are, I think there is something that you can take from Justin and his mindset that will make you a better person, entrepreneur, and lifelong student. He is truly remarkable and makes me excited to see what lies in store in the future. It is students like him that make me certain that the eSports industry will be left in good hands.

Luca White-Matthews is the founder and head coach of Virtuoso Debate. His article series Game Changers is meant to show the many different sides of the eSports industry and the amazing people within it. You can connect with him on LinkedIn and on Instagram @the_transfer_from_canada.

Connect with Justin on LinkedIn!