The First Amari Cup
The first edition of a top-team esports showdown, Africa’s strongest squads in a $1,000 Battle Royale championship I founded, designed and produced end to end, from bracket to broadcast.
Event Type :
Competitive Esports Tournament
Presented By :
Amari Network
My Role :
Founder, Event Design, Graphics & Broadcast Production
Platform :
YouTube Live
Format :
$1,000 Battle Royale · Multi-stage bracket
Prize Pool :
$1,000
10,527
Total series views
1,132
Hours watched
674
Subscribers gained
80,820
Impressions served
6.4%
Average click-through rate
$1,000
Prize pool awarded
Overview & Concept
I pioneered the Amari Cup to give Africa’s top competitive teams something the region rarely had: a legitimate, high-stakes stage of their own. Rather than another casual lobby, the first edition was built as a real tournament, a $1,000 Battle Royale championship with seeded teams, a published bracket, and a broadcast to match.
I owned it end to end. The concept, the competitive format, the on-stream graphics and the live production were all mine, which meant the event felt professionally packaged from the first qualifier to the grand final.
Objectives
Give Africa’s best squads a credible, high-stakes competitive stage.
Package community esports to a broadcast standard, not a casual-lobby standard.
Grow the channel’s audience and subscriber base through appointment-viewing finals.
Prove a repeatable tournament format the network could run again.
Format & Structure
The Cup ran as a multi-stage $1,000 Battle Royale: group qualifiers narrowed the field, feeding knockout semi-finals and a grand final. Marquee squads, Cyclone, Cast and Sierra 7, anchored the bracket, and the rivalries between them carried the series.
Group qualifiers, then semi-finals, then a grand final, seeded by performance.
Standardised rules, lobby settings and points scoring across every match.
Best-of series for the deciding legs, including a two-hour-plus grand final.
Production & Broadcast
Every match was streamed live on YouTube with a full broadcast package: branded overlays, casting, scoreboards and replays. The grand final alone ran past two hours of continuous live production.
OBS multi-scene setup with branded overlays, brackets and lower-thirds.
Live casting and match commentary across every stage.
One consistent visual identity so every upload read as a single series.
Promotion & Social
I designed the promotional graphics for the Cup myself, match-up cards, fixture announcements and result posts that gave each fixture its own hype moment. Concentrating the campaign on marquee rivalries turned individual matches into appointment viewing and drove the impressions the series earned.
Performance & Turnout
The series delivered a measurable, engaged audience and moved the channel forward:
10,527 total views and 1,132 hours watched across the tournament.
674 new subscribers and 80,820 impressions, at a strong 6.4% click-through rate.
The Cyclone vs Cast Grand Final was the standout, 1,508 views and 238.8 watch hours on its own, the most-watched match of the series.
Community & Fan Impact
Beyond the numbers, the Cup gave the region’s competitive scene a reference point, a tournament teams wanted to be seeded into and fans planned their evening around. The grand final taking 21% of the series’ total watch time shows how heavily the audience invested in the deciding matches.
Gallery
Partner
In partnership with
Stellas Bank
The First Amari Cup was staged in partnership with Stellas Bank. Their backing underwrote the $1,000 prize pool and the broadcast production, and gave the tournament institutional credibility, aligning the bank with a young, digitally-native esports audience across Africa.
Beyond funding, the partnership shaped how the event was packaged: Stellas Bank branding ran through the on-stream graphics and match cards, turning the Cup into a genuine sponsor activation rather than a community stream with a prize attached.
Reflections
What worked: the top-team framing. Concentrating on marquee rivalries made the series feel like must-watch television and carried retention.
What I’d refine: tighten the qualifier-to-final cadence, the gaps between stages cost momentum between uploads.
What’s next: a second edition with sponsor-backed prizing and a fixed weekly slot to compound the audience the first Cup built.
CLIENT PROOF
Nick Simmons
founder of JAH creative design agency
Having Lawrence work under my agency made me money as an efficient designer he is, helped me retain my status as a Top 4% upwork agency and I can't be any less proud of him. Under me he learnt framer just so we could get more jobs and he delivered.
Loong Pancoast
CEO of DriveOn
Lawrence is a professional through and through. He has been an absolute pleasure to work with, taking in account all of our needs while meeting expectations. I would 100 percent recommend Lawrence for any developmental design needs. If you are hesitating, don't, you won't regret it.
Drew Levin
Co-founder of SideShift
Lawrence worked hand in hand with me and Nick Lawton to get the first version of our site out the door, staying flexible through every change we needed. His cooperation is a big reason we could launch on time and begin major operations. A designer who listens closely and delivers.
12:27
The First Amari Cup
The first edition of a top-team esports showdown, Africa’s strongest squads in a $1,000 Battle Royale championship I founded, designed and produced end to end, from bracket to broadcast.
Event Type :
Competitive Esports Tournament
Presented By :
Amari Network
My Role :
Founder, Event Design, Graphics & Broadcast Production
Platform :
YouTube Live
Format :
$1,000 Battle Royale · Multi-stage bracket
Prize Pool :
$1,000
10,527
Total series views
1,132
Hours watched
674
Subscribers gained
80,820
Impressions served
6.4%
Average click-through rate
$1,000
Prize pool awarded
Overview & Concept
I pioneered the Amari Cup to give Africa’s top competitive teams something the region rarely had: a legitimate, high-stakes stage of their own. Rather than another casual lobby, the first edition was built as a real tournament, a $1,000 Battle Royale championship with seeded teams, a published bracket, and a broadcast to match.
I owned it end to end. The concept, the competitive format, the on-stream graphics and the live production were all mine, which meant the event felt professionally packaged from the first qualifier to the grand final.
Objectives
Give Africa’s best squads a credible, high-stakes competitive stage.
Package community esports to a broadcast standard, not a casual-lobby standard.
Grow the channel’s audience and subscriber base through appointment-viewing finals.
Prove a repeatable tournament format the network could run again.
Format & Structure
The Cup ran as a multi-stage $1,000 Battle Royale: group qualifiers narrowed the field, feeding knockout semi-finals and a grand final. Marquee squads, Cyclone, Cast and Sierra 7, anchored the bracket, and the rivalries between them carried the series.
Group qualifiers, then semi-finals, then a grand final, seeded by performance.
Standardised rules, lobby settings and points scoring across every match.
Best-of series for the deciding legs, including a two-hour-plus grand final.
Production & Broadcast
Every match was streamed live on YouTube with a full broadcast package: branded overlays, casting, scoreboards and replays. The grand final alone ran past two hours of continuous live production.
OBS multi-scene setup with branded overlays, brackets and lower-thirds.
Live casting and match commentary across every stage.
One consistent visual identity so every upload read as a single series.
Promotion & Social
I designed the promotional graphics for the Cup myself, match-up cards, fixture announcements and result posts that gave each fixture its own hype moment. Concentrating the campaign on marquee rivalries turned individual matches into appointment viewing and drove the impressions the series earned.
Performance & Turnout
The series delivered a measurable, engaged audience and moved the channel forward:
10,527 total views and 1,132 hours watched across the tournament.
674 new subscribers and 80,820 impressions, at a strong 6.4% click-through rate.
The Cyclone vs Cast Grand Final was the standout, 1,508 views and 238.8 watch hours on its own, the most-watched match of the series.
Community & Fan Impact
Beyond the numbers, the Cup gave the region’s competitive scene a reference point, a tournament teams wanted to be seeded into and fans planned their evening around. The grand final taking 21% of the series’ total watch time shows how heavily the audience invested in the deciding matches.
Gallery
Partner
In partnership with
Stellas Bank
The First Amari Cup was staged in partnership with Stellas Bank. Their backing underwrote the $1,000 prize pool and the broadcast production, and gave the tournament institutional credibility, aligning the bank with a young, digitally-native esports audience across Africa.
Beyond funding, the partnership shaped how the event was packaged: Stellas Bank branding ran through the on-stream graphics and match cards, turning the Cup into a genuine sponsor activation rather than a community stream with a prize attached.
Reflections
What worked: the top-team framing. Concentrating on marquee rivalries made the series feel like must-watch television and carried retention.
What I’d refine: tighten the qualifier-to-final cadence, the gaps between stages cost momentum between uploads.
What’s next: a second edition with sponsor-backed prizing and a fixed weekly slot to compound the audience the first Cup built.
CLIENT PROOF
Nick Simmons
founder of JAH creative design agency
Having Lawrence work under my agency made me money as an efficient designer he is, helped me retain my status as a Top 4% upwork agency and I can't be any less proud of him. Under me he learnt framer just so we could get more jobs and he delivered.
Loong Pancoast
CEO of DriveOn
Lawrence is a professional through and through. He has been an absolute pleasure to work with, taking in account all of our needs while meeting expectations. I would 100 percent recommend Lawrence for any developmental design needs. If you are hesitating, don't, you won't regret it.
Drew Levin
Co-founder of SideShift
Lawrence worked hand in hand with me and Nick Lawton to get the first version of our site out the door, staying flexible through every change we needed. His cooperation is a big reason we could launch on time and begin major operations. A designer who listens closely and delivers.
12:27
The First Amari Cup
The first edition of a top-team esports showdown, Africa’s strongest squads in a $1,000 Battle Royale championship I founded, designed and produced end to end, from bracket to broadcast.
Event Type :
Competitive Esports Tournament
Presented By :
Amari Network
My Role :
Founder, Event Design, Graphics & Broadcast Production
Platform :
YouTube Live
Format :
$1,000 Battle Royale · Multi-stage bracket
Prize Pool :
$1,000
10,527
Total series views
1,132
Hours watched
674
Subscribers gained
80,820
Impressions served
6.4%
Average click-through rate
$1,000
Prize pool awarded
Overview & Concept
I pioneered the Amari Cup to give Africa’s top competitive teams something the region rarely had: a legitimate, high-stakes stage of their own. Rather than another casual lobby, the first edition was built as a real tournament, a $1,000 Battle Royale championship with seeded teams, a published bracket, and a broadcast to match.
I owned it end to end. The concept, the competitive format, the on-stream graphics and the live production were all mine, which meant the event felt professionally packaged from the first qualifier to the grand final.
Objectives
Give Africa’s best squads a credible, high-stakes competitive stage.
Package community esports to a broadcast standard, not a casual-lobby standard.
Grow the channel’s audience and subscriber base through appointment-viewing finals.
Prove a repeatable tournament format the network could run again.
Format & Structure
The Cup ran as a multi-stage $1,000 Battle Royale: group qualifiers narrowed the field, feeding knockout semi-finals and a grand final. Marquee squads, Cyclone, Cast and Sierra 7, anchored the bracket, and the rivalries between them carried the series.
Group qualifiers, then semi-finals, then a grand final, seeded by performance.
Standardised rules, lobby settings and points scoring across every match.
Best-of series for the deciding legs, including a two-hour-plus grand final.
Production & Broadcast
Every match was streamed live on YouTube with a full broadcast package: branded overlays, casting, scoreboards and replays. The grand final alone ran past two hours of continuous live production.
OBS multi-scene setup with branded overlays, brackets and lower-thirds.
Live casting and match commentary across every stage.
One consistent visual identity so every upload read as a single series.
Promotion & Social
I designed the promotional graphics for the Cup myself, match-up cards, fixture announcements and result posts that gave each fixture its own hype moment. Concentrating the campaign on marquee rivalries turned individual matches into appointment viewing and drove the impressions the series earned.
Performance & Turnout
The series delivered a measurable, engaged audience and moved the channel forward:
10,527 total views and 1,132 hours watched across the tournament.
674 new subscribers and 80,820 impressions, at a strong 6.4% click-through rate.
The Cyclone vs Cast Grand Final was the standout, 1,508 views and 238.8 watch hours on its own, the most-watched match of the series.
Community & Fan Impact
Beyond the numbers, the Cup gave the region’s competitive scene a reference point, a tournament teams wanted to be seeded into and fans planned their evening around. The grand final taking 21% of the series’ total watch time shows how heavily the audience invested in the deciding matches.
Gallery
Partner
In partnership with
Stellas Bank
The First Amari Cup was staged in partnership with Stellas Bank. Their backing underwrote the $1,000 prize pool and the broadcast production, and gave the tournament institutional credibility, aligning the bank with a young, digitally-native esports audience across Africa.
Beyond funding, the partnership shaped how the event was packaged: Stellas Bank branding ran through the on-stream graphics and match cards, turning the Cup into a genuine sponsor activation rather than a community stream with a prize attached.
Reflections
What worked: the top-team framing. Concentrating on marquee rivalries made the series feel like must-watch television and carried retention.
What I’d refine: tighten the qualifier-to-final cadence, the gaps between stages cost momentum between uploads.
What’s next: a second edition with sponsor-backed prizing and a fixed weekly slot to compound the audience the first Cup built.
CLIENT PROOF
Nick Simmons
founder of JAH creative design agency
Having Lawrence work under my agency made me money as an efficient designer he is, helped me retain my status as a Top 4% upwork agency and I can't be any less proud of him. Under me he learnt framer just so we could get more jobs and he delivered.
Loong Pancoast
CEO of DriveOn
Lawrence is a professional through and through. He has been an absolute pleasure to work with, taking in account all of our needs while meeting expectations. I would 100 percent recommend Lawrence for any developmental design needs. If you are hesitating, don't, you won't regret it.
Drew Levin
Co-founder of SideShift
Lawrence worked hand in hand with me and Nick Lawton to get the first version of our site out the door, staying flexible through every change we needed. His cooperation is a big reason we could launch on time and begin major operations. A designer who listens closely and delivers.
12:27