Elijah Smith Email & Phone Number

I am a software engineer and esports professional. I've been lucky enough to be able to marry my two greatest passions — gaming and computers — professionally, and hope to be able to do so for the rest of my career!My programming experience began after I joined the Technology Student Association club at my high school and formed a team entering the software development competition, where we won first place at the NJ state level three years in a row which allowed us to enter the national competition where we placed top 10 twice and first place once. These experiences inspired me to pursue programming as a career, a decision I haven't regretted since. Although I find myself enjoying more of a backend role, that doesn't mean my ability in creating a refined user experience is inferior! I'm always working hard to improve my knowledge of new technologies and understand how to better implement them in everything that I do.My first experience in esports was when I entered the Pokémon VGC in 2011, and ever since then I've been hooked. I formed the amateur CS:GO team "Maven eSports" with my friends in 2016, competing in events and eventually participating in the High School Esports League (HSEL). This is where everything changed for me. I left Maven in the spring of 2017 and joined HSEL as an intern, where I volunteered as a tournament administrator until the following year when I became the Head of Rules & Regulations. However, I left HSEL in the summer of 2019 to finish my education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). While I was a student and working as an RA I became president of the university's League of Legends club and guided our competitive teams to two ECAC CLOL playoffs, one of which we won and entered into the national championship.After graduating from RPI in 2021 with a dual degree in Computer Science (conc. Artificial Intelligence) and Information Technology and Web Science (conc. Web Technologies) and a minor in General Psychology, I returned to work at Generation Esports (formerly HSEL) where I've been since. While at GenE I've had the opportunity to work on some fantastic and impactful features, such as the platform's tournament check-in/matchmaking system, leaderboard-style competition feature, and player/match statistics.I love to meet people in the gaming/esports and tech industries and learn about all kinds of opportunities and experiences, especially about the many offerings in those spaces. I believe that esports is something that will bring us all together, and am excited to work towards that future!

Listed skills include Customer Service, Management, Leadership, Project Management, and 9 others.