My Journey

Nine years ago, I qualified for an esports event in Melbourne, Australia—the Regional SMITE Championship. I had been playing SMITE casually, climbing the ranks, and eventually built a team of top talent in the region. By winning this event, we secured an invitation to the SMITE World Championship, hosted in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the following years, I continued competing professionally and relocated to the United States, where I eventually became a permanent resident.

Settling in the Atlanta metropolitan area with my wife, I gained full-time employment at Hi-Rez Studios as a Customer Support Representative. In this role, I was recognized internally for several key initiatives, including designing & developing an AI-powered system to detect toxic chat at a low cost, and establishing an official Punishment Policy to ensure fair and consistent player moderation. These player-first contributions led to an opportunity to join the Quality Assurance team.

As a Quality Assurance Analyst, I enjoyed being closer to game development and tackling more complex problems. I conducted rigorous cross-platform QA testing, ensuring smooth build releases, designing end-to-end test plans, performing root cause analysis, and tracking issues using Jira. Collaborating with the Design team was a highlight of the role—I coordinated daily playtests and provided feedback on balance and design. My valuable combination of experience between Esports, Customer Support and Quality Assurance landed me an offer to join the team as a Game Designer.