Fighting to be recognized as a Morningside Athletic, Esports has made their mark constantly in the competitive scene. Fighting to win championships, Esports is competing in their 7th year. Throughout the years, this athletic has played four major games that include Valorant, Rocket League, Overwatch, and League of Legends. Having two championships in their name, in the games League of Legends and Rocket League.
Nathanael Roop, ex captain of the Overwatch team, feels that Esports is “a really good way for people with unathletic abilities to still be able to compete in a competitive environment”. Esports at Morningside has the sole purpose for players around the world to play video games competitively, but it also turns into a family for many of the players.
This family affected many people’s lives including Tyler Duffy, a Rocket League champion from last season, who also dual sports in soccer. He had felt that Esports here gotten him out of his comfort zone and made him try new things. These new things are exciting for him as his team is back this season to defend their title.
Professional Esports may be known by many outside of college, but at Morningside it is unknown to many. Seth Nelson, teammate of Tyler and also a Rocket League Champion, had no idea what esports was. Seth was introduced while he was scheduling his visit to Morningside. The administrator had asked if Seth played video games, he said yes and that is how his legacy started. Seth came here and hit the competitive scene hard and won a championship.
Esports is identified as a collegiate sport as Morningside, but none of the players feel that they get treated like they should. Other sports teams see it as being cool but don’t treat the players like they matter. “I believe it is another form of competing, but I would not compare it to football or basketball.” says Seth Nelson.
Throughout the years at Morningside, the numbers of players have been sporadic as every year students drop out, graduate, or quit esports in general. This year, the Valorant players number had grown significantly giving them the chance to have two full teams. While the League of Legends team had lost players to let them barely be able to make a team.
In Nathanael’s eyes, Esports at Morningside takes “two steps forward and 1 step back”. The one step back is this year as we have lost players in a few of our games. Seth feels that the program has been more family orientated throughout the years. The coaching staff has worked harder to create relationships with the players. 4:30 Caf is known to everyone on the team as many of the players go and eat dinner together.
Nathanael, Tyler, and Seth all feel that to improve, the franchise needs to improve in finding better committed players and to advertise our athletic more.