A graduating senior, Jackson Boyd, reflected on his long-lasting career in the OU Gaming Club. Boyd participated in “every single pillar” of leadership within Esports Co-Curricular Innovation (ECCI). The pillars are the different categories of leadership contained in ECCI that keep the Gaming Club running smoothly, namely, Leadership, Community and Labs, Creative Content, and Competition. From competitive leagues to coaching, production, ambassador, and venue lead, Boyd has done it all.
Boyd’s Beginnings
Surprisingly, Boyd was not initially interested in the OU Gaming Club. The main reason he decided to join was because the Gaming Club was still organizing events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In fact, I didn’t really even consider esports as part of my college career,” Boyd said. “The only reason why I got into it is that it was one of the five organizations that was active on campus in 2020.”
Boyd began attending OU during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, majoring in Construction Science. “[The OU Gaming Club] was the only thing being advertised that had stuff going on,” Boyd said. “Campus was pretty dead. Of the clubs that were in existence, about 50 of them were pretty much just wiped out…because they did not have a proper means of communication outside the in-person meetings.”
Boyd elaborated on how the OU Gaming Club managed to thrive during the pandemic. “Because it’s video games, we [thrive] on online communication. So it’s just a regular day for us.”
A Long Legacy
Boyd joined the inaugural Call of Duty competitive team and the Stream Team in his first year in Fall 2020. In his second semester at OU, Boyd began the Talking Heads podcast and created a new competitive team for Warzone.
In his sophomore year, Boyd became a community ambassador for the leadership team in the OU Gaming Club while continuing his work on the Stream Team. He also started coaching for the Warzone competitive team. Unfortunately, the Warzone team was struggling to find college tournaments, so the team was disbanded later.
Around the same time, “…Halo was getting really big because it had just released,” Boyd said, “so I started up the Halo team next. By the following year, I was doing production for it and was handling all the inner workings of Halo.”
In 2022, Boyd also started a Fortnite competitive team, all while continuing his work as a community ambassador.
Boyd took a short break from OU and worked at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, as a ride operator in 2023. “I needed a break,” he explained. “[Professors are] telling you every single day that… until you’re 40 or 50, you’re going to be working 70-hour work weeks every single week, but at the age of 40 or 50, you’re going to be able to retire. I said, as nice as that would be, I don’t want to live that lifestyle. I’d rather have a good time along the way. That’s kind of what led me to [work at] Disney.”
After participating in the Disney College Program, Boyd decided that his construction degree was not right for him. He switched to a Management major with a certificate in Human Resources.
“After [working at Disney World], I can’t ever go back to construction,” he said. Since 2024, Boyd has been the venue lead, handling all venue-specific needs and working with the graduate assistants.
Highlights
Aside from the fact that Boyd has participated in all six leadership pillars of the Gaming Club, he shared how proud he was that most of the competitive teams he started are still around.
“Out of the three I started, two are still going strong today,” he said, “They don’t look like they’re going anywhere.”
Another source of pride for Boyd is the venue’s grand opening. “For five years, I’ve been hearing that we’re going to have a physical space, and only in the last year and a half did we get it. Seeing it now, finally, after…having that teaser in your mind for so long—all the different places it could’ve been, where it should’ve been, I can’t imagine it anywhere else but here now. As it is right now, it’s a perfect spot.”
Boyd shared that one of his fondest memories through these years was hosting his first big event, the Beat Saber Showdown, in 2022. “That was a two-week event that was a lot of fun,” he said. “For Stream Team, probably my favorite memory with that was OU Giving Day 2022. I had a little running bit with the taser, and it blew up on my hand in the livestream, so you just see myself getting electrocuted in the Giving Day livestream,” he laughed.
As for his experience in competitive teams, Boyd shared, “There’s nothing like getting your first win. You’re working your butt off, you’re training. Your entire life, you’ve never played competitive…you think of yourself as the run-of-the-mill, and then you…smoke them 3-0. Nothing can beat that.”
Boyd explained how, as the team’s coach, he valued the little events between team members. “[I have] never been prouder in my life than Halo’s first team get-together. [It was a] weekly thing after our…meetings—we’d go to Buffalo Wild Wings every Thursday night. We’d be there until, like, one o’clock in the morning just talking, hanging out, having a great time.”
Post-Graduation Plans
Boyd plans to make some money this “summer of green,” then he will head back to Walt Disney World with the College Program, which lets him work for a few months before deciding to be full or part-time. Though he’s not sure what role he will have at Disney, he said, “I’ll just be happy with whatever; I just want to be back with the company.”
When asked to share his final thoughts, Boyd shared a quote from Avicii that he lives by: “One day you will leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember.” He continued, “I apply that to everything. I look at it [like] I could be gone tomorrow, and you gotta just [fully] send it today.”
Jackson Boyd is an essential piece of the OU Gaming Club leadership team, having left a mark on colleagues, teammates, and the organization as a whole.
