Teen gamer scores big break in esports comedy ‘Players’
It has been a whirlwind few weeks for Da’jour Jones. First, it was his senior prom. Then, he graduated from Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Delaware. Finally, he attended the premiere for a TV show in which he has a lead role.
That series, “Players,” recently premiered on Paramount+.
“Everything’s just been leading up to one bigger event,” says Jones, 19, who was born in Philadelphia and raised in Delaware. And he’s not the show’s only Philly connection.
A comedic mockumentary focused on the world of esports, “Players” comes from Exton, Pennsylvania, native Tony Yacenda and his writing partner Dan Perrault — the duo behind the Peabody Award-winning Netflix series “American Vandal.” In “Players,” Jones plays Percy “Organizm” Elmore, a 17-yearold Philly kid who is on a quest to become the greatest professional player in the history of online battle arena game “League of Legends.”
Something of a cross between “Rocky” and “Silicon Valley,” the show follows Jones’ character from his Philadelphia neighborhood to the big leagues and back as he joins professional gaming team Fugitive. The team is on a journey to win its first League Championship Series title — but tension between Jones’ stoic rookie Organizm and veteran team leader Creamcheese (played by Misha Brooks) threatens to derail the effort.
But you don’t need to know anything about video games — let alone the vast, fanatical culture of esports fandom — to get the show.
While it mostly wasn’t filmed in Philly, “Players” very much feels like a Philly story. That authenticity, Yacenda says, is by design — including casting Jones as a series lead.
“It’s not a coincidence that I wanted Organizm, this prodigy playing in his parents’ house, to be a 17-year-old kid from Philadelphia,” Yacenda says. “And for me, I really wanted to find the genuine article, not some kid who had just gone to Juilliard and is 24 playing a 17-year-old.”
Jones fits the bill well. He started acting around age 5, took up stand-up comedy at age 12, and has taken classes at area institutions. While he has appeared in projects such as “That Damn Michael Che” on HBO Max and the forthcoming film “Signs of Love,” “Players” is his biggest role to date — much like Organizm’s trek into pro gaming with Fugitive is the character’s big break.
“I felt like each day, every step Organizm was taking, I was also taking those steps with him,” says Jones. But, he adds, he and his character are nothing alike, outside of their obsessions with wanting to be the greatest at what they do. But playing Organizm, he hopes, will be inspirational, considering that in real life, esports often lack diversity.
“This isn’t the average, typical part for a young African American kid such as myself,” says Jones. “I felt like it could be inspiring to see a young, African American kid coming up and dominating in a league that is predominantly European and Asian.”