April 2023

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us on your collegiate esports program. How long has your university had a varsity esports program and how long have you been the director of the program?

I have been Concordia’s esports coordinator/director since the program started.Concordia launched the esports program in Fall 2019, and we were the first varsity esports program in Central Texas.

 

Is it fair to say you are also the program’s coach? Or do you have paid coaches at your school too?

That is fair to say that I’m the program’s “head coach.” In the future, as we expand, the goal is to have paid coaches per team. As of now, I can coach/manage some of the teams. However, I rely a lot on our players, who have a lot of knowledge of the game and have exemplified leadership characteristics. It has been working for the past couple of years as it helps me manage my workload by giving our students opportunities to earn experience in a leadership position within their teams.

 

How did you get involved with the esports program? Were you already at the university in a different role when you became the director and helped develop the program?

I got involved with the esports program while working in the marketing department at Concordia. Our Athletic Director looked for help starting the program within our university, and I stepped up to the plate because I love esports and I am extremely passionate about it.

 

Which games do you compete in, about how many athletes do you have per team and how many athletes do you have overall?

We compete in Apex, League of Legends, Valorant, Overwatch 2, Rocket League, Super Smash Ultimate, and Chess. Overall, we have over 40+ student athletes in the program.

 

How’s the season going by the way?

Our Spring season has come to a wrap, and I couldn’t have been more proud of how hard our athletes played this year. We got back from our SCAC Conference Showdown in San Antonio last week where our program took 2nd overall.

 

As director, I’m sure recruiting is a big part of what you do as you have so many different games you compete in. I’m sure our audience would want to know what is involved in recruiting. How do you find your athletes and about how many do you recruit per year?

We find our athletes in various ways, such as social media, online/LAN high school esports tournaments, Discord, Next College Student Athlete (NCSA), and in-person events.

 

Is there a good high school esports ecosystem that you can draw from? Or do the athletes actively reach out to you with their game play portfolio or do you reach out to them?

Some student-athletes reach out to me directly, which is typically a rare case. However, there are some ecosystems that I can think of, such as the Discord servers like High School Esports League (HSEL), eFuse, SPIN Collegiate, etc., which are great because they have a lot of high school students who are looking for collegiate teams. At the same time, there are organizations such as Texas Scholastic Esports Federation (TexSEF) that put on recruiting events, which there is one that is about to happen at the end of the month (April 28-29th) at the Esports Stadium Arlington.

 

Is there anything in particular that you look for in their game play?

When we recruit students, we look at a variety of things, such as their rank and history of the game. However, we also gauge their approach to the game and their attitude. We want players who are motivated to improve, willing to listen, and ready to adapt to the team. If they have those qualities, they have a high potential to be a high-impact player in our program. A player could be a highly skilled/ranked player, but if they have a bad attitude and are toxic, they would not fit in well with our program.

 

Another aspect that I’m sure our audience will be interested to know: Do your athletes receive partial or full scholarships or any other benefits from the university?

We currently have partial scholarships for our program. Our esports student-athletes could qualify for the esports scholarship ($2,000/year). This scholarship can also stack with our other scholarship offerings at Concordia. The additional benefit they have is exclusive access to our esports facility, which only esports players and members can use.

 

What are some of the bigger challenges confronting your esports program today? What about esports in general?

One of the biggest challenges confronting our esports program (and a lot of esports programs across the nation) is that budget is limited. We would love to be able to send teams across the state/country to compete with other collegiate teams, but we simply do not have the budget to do so. At the same time, having a constraint on budget means that upgrades and arena expansion would also be affected, which in turn can affect recruitment down the line.

 

That’s about it for our questions and thank you for your time. Final thoughts: Do you have anything else to add that you would like for our gaming audience to know about your program and or collegiate esports?

Esports is a lot more accessible than people think! Collegiate esports has gained significant popularity, with more colleges and universities offering programs and scholarships for athletes. This is a great opportunity for students who are passionate about gaming to pursue their interests while also earning a degree.

Hi there and thank you for taking the time out of your busy school and esports schedule to talk to us about your collegiate esports experience. What year are you and in which games do you compete?

I am a junior and I play Rocket League.

 

How has the esports athletic experience been so far?

The experience has been great, I like winning and we win a lot so it’s enjoyable.

 

Be honest: How many hours a week do you say you practice and compete?

3-5 hours, mostly solo training because I am weird like that.

 

What are your training methods and how do you get ready for tournaments? Do you study streams of your competition?

I play a few casual or comp games or sit in solo training, whatever I feel like. No I don’t like to review footage because I review the game in my head.

 

When’s the competition season, is it in the spring or fall or both?

For SCAC (“Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference”), spring, but NACE (“National Association of Collegiate Esports“) Starleague is both fall and spring.

 

How are you doing so far this year?

We finished 2nd in SCAC and went to playoffs in NACE.

 

Let’s go back to before you started your collegiate athletic career. When did you first start gaming?

I started gaming when I was as young as I can remember, but I didn’t start playing Rocket League until 2015, when it came out of course.

 

At what point did you realize “hey I can do this in college”?

After playing a few matches with the team during tryouts.

 

What was the recruiting process like at your university? Did the director reach out to you or did you actively approach them?

I saw a flyer in my school email and I decided to give it a shot.

 

Has doing esports changed the way you play games in your free time?

Esports has made me play rocket league more, but that’s about the only change.

 

That’s about it and let’s wrap it up with one final question: Think back to when you were gaming before college and compare that to what you know now after being a college esports athlete. What words of advice or tips would you give high schoolers to help them land a spot on a collegiate esports team?

I would say to just keep playing your game in the highest rank possible so you can get better every game you play, and research + practice just as much time as you play

Hi there and thank you for taking the time out of your busy school and esports schedule to talk to us about your collegiate esports experience. What year are you and in which games do you compete?

I am a Junior at Concordia (TX) and compete in Valorant. The Valorant team is new as it was created and started to compete this semester.

 

How has the esports athletic experience been so far?

The start of the season was unpredictable with a rotating starting lineup. However, it felt great when the team was solidified and we melded together.

 

Be honest: How many hours a week do you say you practice and compete?

Valorant practices twice a week for a total of eight hours. With games, the time committed is about 10 hours a week. On top of this, I play outside of practice and stack competitive queues with my teammates. I usually play Valorant in my free time when I finish everything else I have on my schedule.

 

What are your training methods and how do you get ready for tournaments? Do you study streams of your competition?

I play the tournaments the same as I would during practice. I take it seriously and compete to the best of my abilities. I do not scout the competition; however, a vital aspect of improving video games is VOD reviews. Instead of going over the competition and finding mistakes, I focus on self-improvement.

 

When’s the competition season, is it in the spring or fall or both?

Concordia’s main Valorant competition is an in-person tournament held every spring. There are other tournaments we take part in but competing in SCAC is our main goal as a team.

 

How are you doing so far this year?

I am doing great so far! I started playing Valorant 9 months ago and I am currently ascendant three, just 2 games away from immortal.

 

Let’s go back to before you started your collegiate athletic career. When did you first start gaming?

I first started playing competitive fps after I graduated from middle school. The first game I started playing was Overwatch. I have hit top 500 on support, dps, and tank.

 

At what point did you realize “hey I can do this in college”?

I realized I could play esports in college when I came to Concordia. I found out that the esports college scene was bigger than I imagine. There are multiple schools around the U.S. that offer huge scholarships for esports.

 

What was the recruiting process like at your university? Did the director reach out to you or did you actively approach them?

I did not go through the traditional recruiting process at my university. I was already admitted and found out that Concordia had an esports team when I was on a campus tour. After the tour, I reached out to the program director and was offered a scholarship to play esports.

 

Has doing esports changed the way you play games in your free time?

Esports has changed the way I play games in my free time. Before joining the esports program I used to play video games when I had free time. Now, I have to plan my schedule with dedicated time slots to practice Valorant

That’s about it and let’s wrap it up with one final question: Think back to when you were gaming before college and compare that to what you know now after being a college esports athlete. What words of advice or tips would you give high schoolers to help them land a spot on a collegiate esports team?

My advice to high school students would be not to just mindlessly play video games because that leads to burnout. Play for a few hours with a strong mental with a focus on improvement. Joining a team is also something I would recommend experiencing. Team gameplay is very different from ladder. In team gameplay, it is important to work together. In ladder, it is more about punishing mistakes. VOD reviews are important and vital for improvement.

Hi there and thank you for taking the time out of your busy school and esports schedule to talk to us about your collegiate esports experience. What year are you and in which games do you compete

My name is Nick Reak, I compete in League of Legends and Valorant and I am a Junior.

 

How has the esports athletic experience been so far?

I have been playing collegiate for about 3 years now, but this was my first semester at a school where we were able to field a full roster for either of the games I play. I would say the experience was fun, but my hope is that there will be more support from schools in the future as it still feels like we are outcasts rather than athletes.

 

Be honest: How many hours a week do you say you practice and compete?

For team practice and competition it is usually about 15-20 hours with both teams combined, and for individual practice I spend another 15-20 hours a week.

 

What are your training methods and how do you get ready for tournaments? Do you study streams of your competition?

Currently, I don’t spend a lot of time VOD reviewing, most of my preparation comes from watching professional play and videos. Otherwise, I study the drafts of our opponents and attempt to learn their general draft identity to know how to counter or nullify it.

 

When’s the competition season, is it in the spring or fall or both?

Mainly spring, though we do practice in fall and work on group dynamics and practice.

 

How are you doing so far this year?

Alright, wish we could have finished higher in the standings, but I am motivated to keep competing. Financially I am struggling because I want to focus on practice and improving and between the long grind hours and school work, actual work becomes hard to fit in.

 

Let’s go back to before you started your collegiate athletic career. When did you first start gaming?

I started gaming when I was about 5-6, it was casually on PlayStation 1, and over the years I started competing in high school back around 2009 in Halo.

 

At what point did you realize “hey I can do this in college”?

I realized I could compete in college and go back to school when the coach from NMU reached out to recruit me in 2020.

 

What was the recruiting process like at your university? Did the director reach out to you or did you actively approach them?

I reached out to Marc our director, I was already at another school in Kentucky at the time, and I really wanted a school that would compete. After talking to Marc I decided on CTX.

 

Has doing esports changed the way you play games in your free time?

Not really, I am hyper competitive and all it has done is reinforce the drive to compete and win.

 

That’s about it and let’s wrap it up with one final question: Think back to when you were gaming before college and compare that to what you know now after being a college esports athlete. What words of advice or tips would you give high schoolers to help them land a spot on a collegiate esports team?

Start playing team sports, you need to be able to play with others. I was already someone who had a traditional sports background, but the number of players that stunt the competitive nature of a program due to not knowing how to be teammates is massive. So learn to play with teams, and learn to be a active member who strives to improve with those around them.

Cutting Edge Gamer is proud to announce that we are sponsoring UNT esports. Go Mean Green! To kick off our sponsorship, we’ve interviewed Dylan, the UNT esports coach, along with some of the players about their experience in college esports.

You can keep up to date with the team via their Twitter and view their streams on the UNTEsports Twitch channel.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us on your collegiate esports program. How long has your university had a varsity esports program and how long have you been the director of the program?

UNT esports has had a varsity program for 5 years. Just about as long as I’ve been working there!

 

Is it fair to say you are also the program’s coach? Or do you have paid coaches at your school too?

I typically explain my role as an athletic director and that is often the easiest way sum it up given the scope of what we have going on our campus with our competitive side as well as our broadcast and marking side of our operations. UNT has three paid coaches that oversee our competitive teams.

 

How did you get involved with the esports program? Were you already at the university in a different role when you became the director and helped develop the program?

A bit of luck, a vision, and an odd collection of skill sets allowed me to walk into this world when UNT posted a job opening to design and then implement a competitive esport program. I had just moved from Colorado after grad school following my now spouse after she got a job down in DFW and was looking for opportunities when this dream job showed up on my radar. Been here ever since.

Which games do you compete in?

UNT esports competes in Rocket League, Overwatch, League of Legends, and soon Women’s Valorant!

 

How’s the season going by the way?

It’s been going swell! Our Rocket League team has qualified for CRL for 5 years in a row, and while we didn’t make playoffs we have been participating in quite a few leagues this spring to keep us busy. Our League team qualified for playoffs for two years in a row. Most of our teams are now in the trial phase as we scout out new students coming to UNT to prep for Fall 2023. Our marketing team has launched a new twitch podcast called the CHØ Show that goes over the weekly matches, replays, and gets a community leader at UNT to talk about what they do in the campus gaming community!

 

As director, I’m sure recruiting is a big part of what you do as you have so many different games you compete in. I’m sure our audience would want to know what is involved in recruiting. How do you find your athletes and about how many do you recruit per year?

Oh gosh that is the question isn’t it? Our recruits come from a wide verity of sources. Some students are just go getters and email or directly message me on Discord. Others we find from social media like twitter LFT’s (“Looking for Teams”) or Instagram. What’s been really interesting is several recruitment platforms that operate similar to traditional athletics that bring top recruit players to us! I generally have 5-10 openings per year depending on if students are graduating or not.

 

Is there a good high school esports ecosystem that you can draw from? Or do the athletes actively reach out to you with their game play portfolio or do you reach out to them?

Texas esports has grown significantly over the years, it’s been awesome to see various orgs and schools pop up and do cool things in the space. I’d say it’s a mix of us finding students we want to reach out too and students and coaches/recruiters reaching out to us.

 

Is there anything in particular that you look for in their game play?

Our coaches look for several primary factors including mechanics, team communication, and your ability to handle pressure. I look at your GPA, your socials, and how you handle yourself professionally in an interview. It’s one thing to be good at the game, but it’s another thing to be a representative for our institution and what it stands for.

 

Another aspect that I’m sure our audience will be interested to know: Do your athletes receive partial or full scholarships or any other benefits from the university?

Our students receive partial scholarships but keep whatever they win from events and tournaments as a scholarship payout.

 

What are some of the bigger challenges confronting your esports program today? What about esports in general?

It’s a double-edged sword, but the space is developing rapidly and the benchmark for what cut it for a supported program keeps getting pushed by very talented and dedicated people in this industry. It means it keeps folks like me on their toes to make sure I’m still competitive and provide the right amount of support for my students. At the end of the day though, so long as we’re providing opportunities for students to compete and push themselves to learn we’re on the right track.

I also think there’s still a bit of growing pains that separate us from traditional sports. There’s still a fair number of teams that are managed by club programs and that forces developer’s hand in making league structures that don’t often benefit established programs. Advanced scheduling is a rallying cry phrase I’ve heard often in my time with other directors, that’s very needed in this space.

 

That’s about it for our questions and thank you for your time. Final thoughts: Do you have anything else to add that you would like to add?

We really appreciate the support Cutting Edge Gamer has provided UNT Esports and the students in the program! #GMG!

Hi there and thank you for taking the time out of your busy school and Esports schedule to talk to us about your collegiate esports experience. What year are you and in which games do you compete?

I am a senior and I compete in league of legends

 

How has the esports athletic experience been so far?

The esports experience is over for me and I can say I had a good time playing competitive esports and found new friends, however would say I am not happy with the results.

 

Be honest: How many hours a week do you say you practice and compete?

When I was still competing I would have team practice 9 hours a week then a match at the end of the week, Solo practice is hard to gauge but I would usually play around 4-6 games of solo q (“solo queue”) every weekday and watch most pro matches so if I had to be honest I would say I would spend roughly 10-12 hours a day looking and refining my league of legends skills and knowledge while I was playing.

 

What are your training methods and how do you get ready for tournaments? Do you study streams of your competition?

My training methods are play a lot of soloq of every champ I think my team will want me to play, when it comes to game days I always listen to a few specific songs to get me into a good mood for the games, and before the games I go in a custom game and don’t leave till I farm 50 cs in a row without missing one. Then the other aspect of my training is watching pro-matches and pro-players to see what they do and what new things they are coming up with through pro builds and stuff like that.

 

When’s the competition season, is it in the spring or fall or both?

The competition season is truly year round for league of legends there is always amateur stuff to play in, however for CLOL in fall there is a pre-season tournament called the fall warm-up and in the spring is where the season takes place from around February-March till you are knocked out.

 

How are you doing so far this year?

The team this year had great growth, we had a top laner who improved tremendously and a mid laner swap to support and learn the role, we had many ups and downs but I am happy with how we grew through the year.

 

Let’s go back to before you started your collegiate athletic career. When did you first start gaming?

I first started gaming from as far back as I can remember, i was told by my parents back when I lived in Puerto Rico I would play on my uncle Nintendo 64 I think, I’m not sure which one it was I must’ve been like 1 or 2.

 

At what point did you realize “hey I can do this in college”?

I realized I could do this in college when I found out they had a team, I had no idea college esports was really an option at UNT.

 

What was the recruiting process like at your university? Did the director reach out to you or did you actively approach them?

The recruiting process for me was I googled UNT esports league of legends and found a reddit post, and I cant remember her name but I asked a mod on the subreddit if I could get a tryout and she said to fill out the form she sent me and I would hear back in march. I then tried out and made the team.

 

Has doing esports changed the way you play games in your free time?

Playing esports only changed how I play league of legends, it made me better at the game and I learned a lot to improve myself in the game. However I still play other games and it never impacted how I played those.

 

That’s about it and let’s wrap it up with one final question: Think back to when you were gaming before college and compare that to what you know now after being a college esports athlete. What words of advice or tips would you give high schoolers to help them land a spot on a collegiate esports team?

I think that every aspiring collegiate esport athlete should have an open mind to learn more about the game and not assume they are the best nor do they know everything. This can apply to life as well but it helps a lot when trying to make it onto a team and to understand why teammates do what they do in game, instead of getting angry with them.

Hi there and thank you for taking the time out of your busy school and esports schedule  to talk to us about your collegiate esports experience. What year are you and in which games do you compete?

Junior and Rocket League

 

How has the esports athletic experience been so far?

Love it. Being able to compete with good friends is so much fun

 

Be honest: How many hours a week do you say you practice and compete?

We have 4 hours of scheduled practice but we also play randomly throughout the week. Competing varies but the weeks that we have tournaments can have days that last multiple hours.

 

What are your training methods and how do you get ready for tournaments? Do you study streams of your competition?

Training involves playing the game on your own and with your team to stay consistent in the game. Tournament preparation is mostly studying our own gameplay rather than our opponent’s gameplay.

 

When’s the competition season, is it in the spring or fall or both?

We compete in both fall and spring.

 

How are you doing so far this year?

Pretty well, we’ve dropped out early in some tournaments but overall we have improved a lot.

 

Let’s go back to before you started your collegiate athletic career. When did you first start gaming?

My dad put me on Halo 1 when I was 2 and I’ve been playing games ever since.

 

At what point did you realize “hey I can do this in college”?

My freshman year of college I found the untrl discord server and the more I played the game the more I realized that I can do this as in school.

 

What was the recruiting process like at your university? Did the director reach out to you or did you actively approach them?

I tried out through the discord server and then met everyone.

 

Has doing esports changed the way you play games in your free time?

Yes, it can sometimes be less fun when you’re playing for improvement instead of for fun but its still really enjoyable.

 

That’s about it and let’s wrap it up with one final question: Think back to when you were gaming before college and compare that to what you know now after being a college esports athlete. What words of advice or tips would you give high schoolers to help them land a spot on a collegiate esports team?

Enjoy the grind or else it becomes a chore and don’t have an ego.