Casual Gamers
Motivation
- Competing to show skill
- Winning non-cash prizes
- Free entry / low cost
Pain Points
- Don't know where to find events or pathways to go pro
- No way to discover events that match limited play time
UX/UI · Mobile Platform · Esports
Designing LATAM's first esports career platform
A mobile app that turns scattered tournaments and recruitment into one path from casual to pro.
The Challenge
Pro players juggled multiple platforms and Discord servers just to compete. There was no clear path for casual players to turn pro — and no way to get noticed by teams hiring.
Business Context
Esports State was Altar Esports’ bet on the LATAM gaming market — originally a sponsorship bridge between brands and gaming events. The MVP’s success was measured by adoption, tournament registration, and retention, with the secondary goal of feeding the recruitment funnel for Altar’s pro teams. Freemium models were considered but parked outside the MVP scope.
The Solution
One app. Compete in tournaments, grow through achievements, get recruited by pro teams.
- Validated through user testing
- Met all core business objectives
114
Survey responses
8
In-depth interviews across 4 user types
14 reduced to 5
Features prioritized
1
Validated MVP
The Process
From research to a validated MVP
Double Diamond — every decision grounded in research and what could actually ship.
-
1
Discover
- Segmented the user population to identify target groups
- Conducted interviews & surveys to validate user pain points
- Analyzed the competition to find market gaps
-
2
Define
- Created user personas to humanize the data
- Defined core problems based on research
- Mapped the customer journey to expose friction in tournament registration
-
3
Develop
- Facilitated brainstorming sessions with the team and stakeholders
- Applied a Value + Usage Matrix to prioritize features
- Mapped user flows for the core MVP experience
-
4
Deliver
- Produced a high-fidelity Figma prototype to validate the MVP
- Designed engagement content to extend the MVP beyond the app
- Handed off the project for development after stakeholder approval
Discover & Define
Defining user needs through data
Building the gaming personas
Using the Gaming Personas framework from Global Web Index as a starting point, I segmented the population into four user types and validated their needs through 8 interviews and 114 survey responses. Two groups — Casual Gamers and Pro Players — emerged as the focus for the MVP.
Participants were recruited through Altar Esports’ network — players from the pro team and personal contacts that matched each user type. Two of the four groups (Streamers and Event Managers) were validated but excluded from the MVP scope: the priority was capturing the largest user base fast, and gamers were the volume.
Pro Players
Motivation
- Cash prizes
- Facing top regional and international talent
- Building a community
Pain Points
- Overwhelmed by scattered tools
- Switching between multiple tournament sites
- Coordinating across too many Discord servers
Mapping the Tournament Journey
I mapped the tournament experience across six stages. The map exposed two systemic issues: fragmentation and operational complexity — concentrated at registration.
3–4 platforms just to register — the highest-friction moment in the entire journey.
Competitor analysis — three gaps we could own
Across regional and international platforms, three structural gaps stood out. Each one became a pillar of our MVP.
- The path to pro didn’t exist Some platforms served pro-tier events well, but none offered a structured progression system for players climbing toward pro. We made it our top priority.
- Manual data entry, full of errors Most platforms required players to manually input match results, creating errors and extra workload. We automated the entire flow.
- Most platforms only supported one game Most platforms focused on one game or had small event catalogs, limiting their reach across LATAM. We designed for any competitive title from day one.
Career path became our north star — automation and multi-game support, the foundation that made it possible.
Develop & Deliver
Prioritizing the 5 features that mattered
Ideation and Scoping the MVP
From the CJM, I ran brainstorming sessions with stakeholders to generate ideas, then plotted them on a Value + Usage Matrix to land on the highest-leverage 5 — both axes informed by survey data.
The hardest cuts weren’t bad ideas — they were good ideas at the wrong time. The Esports State Academy, designed to train casual players toward pro level, had the highest projected impact but the highest cost: time, headcount, and capital we didn’t have for the MVP. A token-based e-commerce, a stream voting system, and a skill-matchmaking feature were also parked. Each one earned its place in a future roadmap; none of them earned a place in the launch.
The 5 features that made it into the MVP
Tournament Platform
One place for all free-to-enter tournaments with live score updates (no manual input needed).
Player Progression
Weekly and monthly tasks that build skill and bring users back.
Recruitment Channel
A feature for pro-teams to see top players and send recruitment messages.
Content Challenges
Weekly events and challenges designed to generate shareable content for social media channels.
Winner Highlights
A section showcasing tournament champions — recognition for winners, aspiration for everyone else.
Content Challenges and Winner Highlights extended the experience beyond the app — toward social media reach and community recognition.
Structuring the Experience with Flows
User flows guided screen creation, ensuring every step addressed the friction surfaced in research. Tournament Registration is shown here — the flow with the most friction in the journey.
Tournament Registration
Key Design Decisions
Three decisions shaped the MVP. Each one solved a user need and a business need at the same time — the leverage points where the design earned its keep.
Decision
One entry point: a single live tournaments list
The Main Page is the single entry point — one list of live tournaments. The Tournament Page doubles as sponsor real estate, solving fragmentation for pros and the guidance gap for casual users.
- Live tournaments first — solves overwhelm for pros.
- One-tap registration — no friction.
- Sponsor space built into the structure.
Decision
Leveling up as a path to recruitment
EXP and achievement badges make progression visible at a glance. The same signals that motivate players to return become the data Altar Esports recruiters use to scout and contact talent directly.
- EXP bar — leveling up keeps players coming back.
- Badges mark the milestones worth showing.
Decision
Driving Engagement through Content and Recognition
Engagement and recognition extended outside the app: weekly Content Challenges drove skill growth, and Winner Highlights amplified player visibility through the company’s 100K+ social audience — a direct pathway to Altar Esports recruitment.
Validating the prototype
I ran two rounds of usability testing on the Figma prototype, with one to two participants per round, focused on the critical jobs: tournament registration, profile creation, and reviewing results. Findings from the first round drove a second iteration before handoff.
Conclusion & Takeaways
What I learned
Key Takeaway
Working on a fragmented market taught me that the hardest design decision isn't what to build — it's what to leave out. Of 14 candidate features, only 5 made it into the MVP, and that prioritization mattered more than any pixel.