Design the Future

These Official Rules govern the UC Irvine Esports 10th Anniversary Jersey Design Contest (“Contest”). By submitting an entry, each participant agrees to be bound by these rules in their entirety.

1. Eligibility

The Contest is open only to current UC Irvine undergraduate, graduate, and professional students (including students in the School of Medicine and other health sciences programs) who are in good academic standing and possess a valid UCInetID at the time of submission and throughout the Contest period.

Verification will be completed using the UCInetID, @uci.edu email, @hs.uci.edu/@health.uci.edu email, or other official UC Irvine-provided Google Workspace email address. Entrants must be able to authenticate via their UCInetID.

Current UC Irvine student employees of UC Irvine Esports are eligible to participate. Faculty, staff (who are not current UC Irvine students), alumni, and non-UC Irvine affiliates are not eligible. All participants must be at least 18 years of age.

2. Key Dates and Timeline

The Contest will proceed according to the following schedule:

UC Irvine Esports reserves the right to adjust any dates for operational or scheduling reasons. Any material changes will be communicated on www.esports.uci.edu/jersey-design-contest and via official UC Irvine Esports channels.

3. Submission Requirements

• Entries must be submitted via the official Contest Form (UC Irvine’s QuestionPro platform) linked on www.esports.uci.edu/jersey-design-contest.
• A Brand Asset Kit will be provided on the official contest page (www.esports.uci.edu/jersey-design-contest), including:
  • Official UC Irvine Esports 10th Anniversary brand guidelines (summary)
  • UC Irvine color palette, Anteater mascot vectors, logos, and fonts
• Entrants may use any design program or method they prefer, including Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate, Canva, Figma, hand-drawn sketches (scanned at high resolution), or any other tool. Use of the provided templates and brand assets is strongly encouraged but not required.
• Each individual entrant or team may submit up to three (3) designs total.
• Team submissions are permitted and may include up to four (4) current UC Irvine students per entry. All team members must be listed in the submission form and verified via UCInetID.
• Files must be submitted as high-resolution JPEG, PNG, or PDF (minimum 300 DPI at actual print size).
• Entrants must include a short description (maximum 150 words) and, if AI was used, a detailed AI Usage Disclosure (see Section 4).

4. AI Usage Policy

AI tools (such as Midjourney, Grok Imagine, DALL·E, Adobe Firefly, etc.) are permitted as assistive tools only. Every entry must represent meaningful human creative collaboration. Pure prompt-to-output submissions with no or minimal post-editing are strictly prohibited and are subject to disqualification.

Entrants must disclose AI usage in the submission form and, if requested by UC Irvine Esports, provide prompt history, iteration screenshots, and before/after editing files. The final design must reflect the entrant’s own artistic vision and decision-making. UC Irvine Esports reserves the sole right to determine whether an entry meets the “human-enough” collaboration standard. Failure to disclose AI use or failure to meet this standard is grounds for disqualification.

Human-enough Collaboration: We want designs that showcase real human creativity. AI tools may be used for inspiration, reference images, color suggestions, or minor enhancements, but the core concept, composition, and significant artistic execution must come from you. The final design should clearly reflect your personal vision, hand-drawn elements, manual editing, or substantial creative decisions—not primarily generated by AI. Entrants are encouraged to document their process to demonstrate this human contribution.

5. Intellectual Property, Copyright, and License Grant

All entries must be the original work of the entrant(s) and must not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party. By submitting an entry, each entrant grants UC Irvine Esports and the University of California, Irvine, a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute, and display the submitted design (and any derivative works) in connection with the Contest, official jerseys, digital asset packs, marketing, merchandise, websites, social media, and any future UC Irvine Esports initiatives.

Qualifying entrants further agree that their designs may be included in a free “10th Anniversary Community Design Pack” with full credit given to the creator(s). The Grand Prize winner additionally grants UC Irvine the right to produce and sell official jerseys using the winning design.

6. Brand Compliance, Trademarks, and Production Modifications

All designs must strictly comply with the official UC Irvine Brand Guidelines available at https://brand.uci.edu/. No third-party intellectual property is allowed, including (but not limited to) Riot Games, League of Legends, VALORANT, or any other gaming company logos, characters, runes, agents, or trademarks.

UC Irvine Esports reserves the right to make modifications, adjustments, or refinements to any submitted design for the following reasons:

• To ensure full compliance with UC Irvine brand guidelines and licensing standards;
• To make the design technically suitable for apparel printing and production (e.g., color separation, vectorization, simplification of fine details, adjustment of gradients or textures);
• To improve visibility, legibility, or performance when printed on jerseys;
• To ensure consistency, quality, and usability when adapting the design for inclusion in a free 10th Anniversary Community Design Pack (e.g., optimizing for digital formats such as wallpapers, backgrounds, posters, and overlays).

These modifications will be limited in scope and made in good faith to preserve the original creative intent of the design as much as possible. Submission of a design constitutes the entrant’s explicit consent to such reasonable production and digital adaptations.

7. IP Verification and Originality Review Process

The UC Irvine Esports Program and the UC Irvine Student Center will conduct a good-faith review of all submissions for originality and third-party intellectual property compliance. While no review can guarantee absolute certainty, the following multi-step process will be applied to every entry:

8. Contest Structure, Shortlisting, and Winner Selection

• All timely submissions that meet basic eligibility requirements will be designated as Qualifying Submissions.
• Senior leadership from UC Irvine Esports and Student Center & Event Services will jointly conduct an internal review and select five to seven Finalist Designs from the Qualifying Submissions.
• Only these Finalist Designs will be eligible for the Grand Prize (the design that will be produced as the official 2026 – 27 varsity jerseys).
• All Qualifying Submissions will be publicly displayed on www.esports.uci.edu/jersey-design-contest and may be included in a free 10th Anniversary Community Design Pack.

9. Prizes

• Grand Prize Winner:
  • If won by an individual: $500 gift card to The Hill and an official team jersey.
  • If won by a team (up to four students): The team will receive a total of $500 in gift cards to The Hill to be split among the winners and a jersey for each team member.
• Second Prize Winner:
  • If won by an individual: $250 gift card to The Hill.
  • If won by a team (up to four students): The team will receive a total of $250 in gift cards to The Hill to be split among the winners.
• Third Prize Winner:
  • If won by an individual: $150 gift card to The Hill.
  • If won by a team (up to four students): The team will receive a total of $150 in gift cards to The Hill to be split among the winners.

10. Digital Asset Pack

All Qualifying Submissions may be compiled (with creator credit) into a free “10th Anniversary Community Design Pack,” which may include wallpapers, Zoom backgrounds, posters, stream overlays, and social templates. The pack may launch in stages beginning in October 2026, and remain available on www.esports.uci.edu indefinitely.

11. Disqualifications

UC Irvine Esports reserves the right to disqualify any entry that violates these rules, contains offensive material, fails brand compliance, uses AI without sufficient human collaboration, or attempts to manipulate voting. All decisions by UC Irvine Esports are final and binding.

12. Limitation of Liability & General Terms

UC Irvine Esports and the University of California, Irvine, are not responsible for technical failures, lost submissions, or unauthorized access. This Contest is governed by the laws of the State of California.

By participating, entrants agree to release and hold harmless UC Irvine Esports, the University of California, Irvine, and their respective officers, employees, agents, and affiliates from claims arising out of participation in the Contest or acceptance or use of any prize, except where prohibited by law.

13. Contact

Questions should be directed to esports@uci.edu with the subject line “10th Anniversary Jersey Contest Rules Inquiry.”

These Official Rules constitute the entire agreement between UC Irvine Esports and participants. UC Irvine Esports reserves the right to amend these Official Rules at any time for clarity or fairness. Material changes will be communicated through official contest channels. All interpretations and decisions are final.