Cebu Clash
The look and the full broadcast package for two Honor of Kings tournaments in Cebu, made casual on purpose so newcomers would not feel shut out.
Cebu Clash ran at SM Seaside City on August 30 and 31, 2025. Its follow-up, Lapu-Lapu Clash, ran at The Outlets at MEZ2 Estate on November 21 and 22 with a ₱100,000 prize pool. I was the graphics designer for both: one identity that had to work on a phone screen, a printed placard and a live stream at 1080p.
- Discipline
- Motion design, Brand identity
- Client
- Cebu Esports Arena and Honor of Kings
- Year
- 2025
- Role
- Event identity, Broadcast motion package, Pubmats
- Tools
- After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator
- Runtime
- 0:18
Main stinger Main stinger, 3 seconds. Played between every game.
Casual on purpose
Honor of Kings is not widely played in the Philippines, and even less in Cebu. If the event looked like a professional esports league, newcomers would assume it was not for them and never sign up.
So I went the other way and made it look as casual and fun as possible: halftone photography in one hard blue, torn paper edges, burst shapes, and a fat extruded title in yellow and orange. The only thing that looks serious is the prize pool, and that contrast is the hook.
Everything sits on four colours and two typefaces, written down on one cheat sheet so the publishing team could make new posts without me.
- #FFFF00 Title yellow
- #FF7F00 Title orange
- #830000 Outline maroon
- #006CFF Halftone blue
- #C6D6E3 Paper
Modular Amplitude for titles, Montserrat for everything else. The rules the whole event was built from.
- 00:00:18
- 00:01:00
- 00:01:07
- 00:01:14
- 00:02:00
- 00:02:14
The main stinger frame by frame. It is an overlay: the title punches in over the live feed, the halftone burst wipes across, and the cut happens while the frame is fully covered.
Stingers are timed to the cut
A stinger has one job: hide the switch from one camera or scene to another. Each one is built around the frame where the screen is fully covered, so the operator can cut on that frame without a visible jump.
The main stinger runs 3 seconds, the fast one 1.5 seconds for quick replays, and the instant replay stinger has its own label so viewers know what they are watching.
Live overlays, built as layered PSDs the production team could update between games.
Thanks for watching End card with the event credits rolling beside it.
Lapu-Lapu Clash
The second event kept the system and changed the setting. The halftone fighters stay, but the background becomes the red lattice of a Lapu-Lapu landmark and the sun from the Philippine flag sits behind the logo.
- Head organizer
- Ryan Abarquez Balbuena
- Graphics designer
- Earl Yamson
- Venues
- SM Seaside City, The Outlets at MEZ2 Estate
- Partners
- Cebu Esports Arena, Honor of Kings, Converge, Chreo Productions
From the credits roll in the broadcast end card.
Thought process
- 01
Start from who is missing
Honor of Kings is barely known in Cebu. A serious esports look would scare off the casual players the event needed, so intimidation was the real problem to design against.
- 02
Look casual, pay big
A torn comic page with halftone fighters, burst shapes and a fat extruded title says anyone can join. The large prize pool, set loud and clear, says it is still worth winning.
- 03
Write the rules down
Four colours, two typefaces, one cheat sheet. The publishing team had to make dozens of posts without waiting for me.
- 04
Time everything to the cut
Each stinger was built backwards from the frame where the screen is fully covered, so the operator could switch scenes on that frame.
- 05
Reuse for the sequel
Lapu-Lapu Clash kept the system and changed the setting, which made the second event faster and still feel new.
