Miami University Promotes Esports Via Varsity Team

BY CHARLES BLADES
Miami University journalism student

What was once a hobby reserved for children, over the past few years esports have gone mainstream, or at least garnered enough popularity to be considered mainstream.

Esports, or competitive gaming, has become a one of the largest internet and gamin- driven arenas in recent years with tournaments of professional esports athletes being taken more seriously across the globe.

As with any professional sport, a collegiate athletic system is usually not too far behind, and within the competitive gaming scene this is no different. Many colleges across the country features dozens of clubs dedicated to the various popular esports titles, the majority of which are not at the varsity level.

Now a varsity sport

At Miami University, however, Miami faculty members Glenn Platt and Phill Alexander last year petitioned the school successfully to fund a varsity esports team.

“It was a big step up,” explained Alexander, sitting inside the King Library esports Arena, which is home to dozens of high-end gaming computers and which provide the team a dedicated place to practice multiple nights a week. “The varsity status helped a bunch in getting the resources together the make the team the best it can be.”

Miami hosts three different teams all of which play a different game in Overwatch (a class-based, first-person shooter), League of Legends (a multiplayer online battle arena or MOBA for short), and Hearthstone (an online collectible card game similar to Magic the Gathering)

Fourth-year Overwatch team member Calvin Sanvee echoed Alexander’s sentiments precisely, going as far as to crediting the team’s recent success in part to the team’s newfound digs.

“I’m so thankful for this room,” says Sanvee “because before when we were playing for the club team, people were playing in their dorms or from their house and their internet was really spotty. There wasn’t much synergy because we didn’t have all of our teammates playing in the same room at once.”

Outside of King

While the team might be playing in the same room for now, this doesn’t mean they haven’t made an impact outside of the King Library walls in the past few months.

On Twitch, a popular streaming website used primarily for gamers to broadcast themselves playing a myriad of games, the Miami team has seen a number of viewers tune in for their higher profile tournaments matches.

“I know the League of Legends team did something like 2,000 concurrents during one of our tournaments,” said second-year League of Legends team member Riley Hays, “and the Overwatch team got up to 5,000 in one of their TESPA games.”

TESPA is one of the major collegiate esports tournaments running currently. Its run, in partnership with Blizzard, the video game developer behind both Overwatch and Hearthstone, allows the multimillion-dollar company to use its platform to give exposure to a number of college-level esports athletes.

And while the exposure has been nice for the team, it’s the sense of comraderie and togetherness that has spending long nights putting in the work to get better.

As Overwatch team member Tyler Fass puts it, “I’ve met some of my best friends here and without a doubt esports is a big part of my life here at Miami.”

This story was produced for a Miami University broadcast journalism class.