Jacob hails York College role in making him an Esports pro and one of the world's top-10 players!
Esports student Jacob Sellars has credited York College with nurturing him into one of the world’s top 10 Rocket League players and helping launch his career as a professional.
Jacob, 18, is now earning more than £200 a game, having been recruited by Sheffield-based Team Endpoint after catching the eye with his performances for College in reaching this year’s British Esports Student Champs final.
He is also working as a Content Creator for Endpoint, promoting the company brand on TikTok by editing and posting videos.
Jacob’s talent has obviously been instrumental in his rapid progression into the pro ranks, but he is also quick to hail the roles of Esports tutor Joe Hopper and fellow student Connor Chittock – the York College Vikings Rocket League Team Coach – in his success.
Like Jacob, Connor enrolled on our Esports – Business & Digital Innovation Diploma course two years ago, with the pair having first become friends at York High School.
Connor’s coaching prowess has also landed him a place studying Esports Coaching & Management at the College of Esports in London and, on how College’s quality of teaching, the resources and his peers have helped him fulfil his potential, Jacob said: “I’ve wanted to become a professional player ever since I started playing Rocket League in 2018.
“I started off playing on my PlayStation 4 at home and was ranked in the world’s top 100. Then, during the Esports course, I was using a PC for the first time and have bumped my ranking up to the top 10 and top three in the UK.
“The high-tech PCs at College have been really important in that process. My mental (performance) has also improved so much since I came here because I’ve been working with one of the best tutors and coaches I have ever had in my life.
“Joe and Connor have both helped me improve as a player. I used to get stressed over games, but Connor is a Psychological Coach and he has helped me and the team.
“I used to just play as an individual, so it has been really good to come to College and play in a team environment. That has set me up to become a professional player as well, where you need to be part of a team.
“Joe knows everything about Esports and everything he tells us turns out to be true. He has been a professional gamer himself so, any question we have, he knows the answer.”
Aside from the impact on his playing ability, Jacob’s two years of study at Sim Balk Lane have, just as importantly, equipped him with a strong all-round knowledge of how the industry works and the wider opportunities presented by the profession.
The payment system at Endpoint sees players earn money through donations via TikTok after followers view their performances during live streams of games, with the social media platform then taking a share of the revenue.
“Joe has drilled into me the need to create your own brand and I’ve got a community now on TikTok,” Jacob pointed out. “I’ve got 1,900 followers and that has doubled since I started playing professionally.
“I’m also speaking to people now about merchandise. I’ve got a discord server and am starting to create my own website with all my achievements on it.
“I was thinking of doing Business before I did Esports at College, so I really enjoyed learning about the business side of things during the course.”
It would be irresponsible as a college to promote ourselves as the pathway towards a professional playing career.
Jacob’s skillset is elite and, similar to sports such as football, the percentage of young hopefuls who get the opportunity to turn pro is small.
Contrary to lazy stereotypes, the course does not see students playing video games all week either.
That is normally reserved for Wednesday afternoons – the traditional time for all College sports teams to be playing their fixtures.
The course programme, meanwhile, has a much broader focus on the Esports industry’s multiple and ever-growing vocational options open to all students, as well as for professional players after their surprisingly short-lived careers are over.
“As you get into your mid-20s, your reaction times slow down, as does your speed skillset, but this course has prepared me for so many other routes when I finish professionally,” Jacob explained. “I’ve really enjoyed shoutcasting (providing commentary on live game streams) at College, but I could also look at becoming an Esports analyst, a coach, a manager or an owner of an organisation – literally anything to do with Esports.
“Alternatively, I could look at going into business or law, because we’ve learned a lot about that in Esports as well.”
Making students appreciate how the knowledge they are acquiring on the course can lead to employment opportunities in a number of areas is something Joe takes seriously.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Jacob has got this opportunity with Team Endpoint for no other reason than he deserves it because of his work and effort as an academic student and Esports player,” Joe declared. “You get out what you put in and, if a student goes on to achieve what they want to achieve, that’s what gets you up in a morning as a teacher.
“But I think the course has also helped Jacob appreciate the wider picture of Esports. Traditionally, a pro player gets phased out by the age of 25 or 26.
“That’s changing a bit, but students, like Jacob, need to realise that they’re not going to be high-end players for ever and need to focus on the other Esports roles that might be open to them later in life. There are jobs in shoutcasting, podcasts, marketing and freelance writing and there might be a day that Esports eclipses the sports industry.”
While Jacob’s contributions clearly helped elevate the college team’s displays during 2024/25, he is quick to share out any plaudits aimed in his direction.
“We fought back from 3-2 down in the British Esports Student Champs semi-final because of Connor’s involvement,” he said. “Last year, I would have been nervous and annoyed but, in the couple of minutes he is allowed to coach between matches, he kept us calm and ensured that our team play remained cohesive.
“The tactics Connor put in place were some of the best I have ever seen and got us into the final. We also had our Valorant coach Alex Donohue as a sub for our Rocket League team and he was more mentality based, too, so having him and Connor around helped us enormously.
“They made us feel impossible to beat, because it’s all about how you play the game and how your mentality is in specific moments.
“Ranks don’t matter then. On paper, we had one of the weakest teams in terms of ranks but, if people think individual skill wins game… no chance!”
Joe also saluted the coaching qualities Connor demonstrated to get the best out of Jacob and his team-mates.
“Our success was not built around one person,” Joe said. “When you have a Jacob Sellars, everything can become so much about the Lionel Messi of the team.
“But Connor – as the team’s coach – was so influential in terms of getting the team to the final. He is calm, cool and calculated and the team fed off that energy.
“There’s also a big difference in terms of the ranks of players you have in a team and Connor deserves a massive shoutout in terms of how we approached the matches. We had players who were good at taking on board instructions and sticking to gameplans, which made them valuable players too after Connor had given them roles.
“He wasn’t one of the highest ranked players we had either, but that wasn’t his job. The team’s job was to play the game and Connor’s was to keep their heads in the game.
“He defines himself as a Psychological Coach and, under him, we became known as a team based on mentality who are performance driven, not results driven.”
On getting the best out of Jacob and the rest of the Vikings’ Rocket League players, Connor added: “I’ve known Jacob since we were 12-year-olds at York High and have seen his progression from then. I remember seeing him at the top of the PlayStation leaderboards and thinking this kid’s got talent, but he needed the right people around him to utilise it, because Rocket League is ultimately a team game.
“You can have strong players but still play like a poor team, but we worked as a team. Before, Jacob was playing in teams with random people he didn’t know.”
Connor, who claims to have been playing video games since the age of two, is also grateful to College for enabling him to further his coaching education with a three-year BA degree course, where he will attend lectures and tutorials in the 2012 Olympic Games Velodrome that saw the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Dame Laura Kenny and Sir Jason Kenny win cycling gold for Team GB.
“As much as I’m moving away, I’m truly gutted to be leaving because I believe this is one of the best places to study Esports,” he said. “I will keep coming back, though, to see the progression and 100% recommend this place to anyone.
“You’re not just enrolling on a course, you’re joining a community that wants you to grow as a person with people who care about you as a person and your career. When we started here, the room was bare, apart from the PCs.
“Now, it has evolved into an Esports space and a place to develop and learn, not only in terms of playing, but the business and psychological aspects.
“We’ve done so many great things as a team and on the course. We have been on educational trips and conventions and, coming here, gives you great opportunities because the tutors have incredible contacts.
“They teach you how to create your own brand. Joe drills into us the importance of having your own LinkedIn account to build our industry contacts and I think we’ve changed how people view us in the building.
“The respect for the course has been elevated. It’s not about playing Fortnite all day - you learn about business, psychology, nutrition and how to perform.
“We have learned so much from Joe and I think the provision we get here is better than a lot of university courses that are on offer.”
The Esports Suite was fully refurbished earlier this year in the Vikings’ colours and the department also regularly utilise College’s Cube 360 Immersive Room to plan tactics for league fixtures, whilst all players now wear game shirts with their names on the back.
To learn more about our Esports
From September, we will also be launching a one-year Level 4 HNC in Esports (Athlete Support and Development Pathway) course, providing a progression route into Higher Education on Campus for students of the subject.
“There’s never been a better or more exciting time to study Esports at York College,” Joe enthused. “We have the facilities to excel now and are slowly becoming a powerhouse.
“The room rebrand has only been possible because of the standards we have set. Grades are the highest they have ever been and students want to be here and want to achieve.
“When we start the HNC, the students will also be teaching the Level 2 and 3 students and we have a recurring booking for the Immersive Room, because we use it so much. It’s ours now for two hours a week.
“We’re also putting a podcast out called ‘Behind the Viking Voices’ and have ordered a green screen, so one of our students can be a full-time shoutcaster and host the podcast. We’re planning to delve deeper into the holistic aspects of Esports, too, because my background is sports psychology and I want to look more into the mental state of players.
“We’ve even reached out to (US education partner) York College in Pennsylvania to build a relationship with them. They don’t do Esports as a course, but they have a society of 234 players and we want to play some matches against them.
“Our Principal (Ken Merry) came here from Barnsley College, who were the first college to run an Esports course, so we have his support and that of the Strategic Leadership Team. We’re also looking to work with external partners and sponsors next year.
“We’re a real community and in a really healthy place. Jacob is turning professional, Connor has got an opportunity to explore a new city and do something new and we have other students who are going to study different subjects at university, but more than two-thirds of our students are planning to stay with us and study the HNC next year.”
To learn more about our Esports Business & Digital Innovation Diploma course, please click here
For details of our new HNC in Esports (Athlete Support and Development Pathway), visit here
If you would like to meet our expert team of tutors, discuss any of our courses with them and view our facilities, then please consider our next Open Event on Tuesday 7th October (5.30pm-8pm). Register a place here
