黑洞社区

Cameron Tredway knew about collegiate Esports powers such as the University of North Texas and the University of California, Irvine. He didn鈥檛 plan on competing against them.

Tredway鈥檚 place in the world of competitive Esports changed quickly last semester, and he is pleased to see Wichita State jumping in to a growing fusion of sports and entertainment with its new varsity team.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very, very accessible for people to be able to watch Esports these days,鈥� said Tredway, a junior industrial engineering major from Wichita. 鈥淚t鈥檚 spreading very quickly. Even ESPN has been airing the Overwatch league on some of their channels.鈥�

One moment, Tredway played Overwatch with the Shocker Gaming Club. A few discussions later, he played on Wichita State鈥檚 varsity Esports team under the direction of Tyler Levesque.

鈥淚 had just heard there was a gaming club and I wanted to play with them,鈥� Tredway said. 鈥淎ll of a sudden, Tyler comes in and says, 鈥楬ey, guys, I鈥檓 your coordinator for the semester . . . and you鈥檙e entered in two tournaments.鈥�

Levesque, Wichita State鈥檚 Esports coordinator, moved fast during his first semester, putting together two teams and arranging practices on the fly. When his Esports students return in the fall, the program will look and feel much different.

鈥淪chools with Esports programs have been around for a while now, maybe three, four, five years,鈥� Levesque said. 鈥淥ne of the first lessons we learned was that people take this very seriously.鈥�

The varsity Esports room in the Heskett Center is outfitted with seven Cybertron gaming towers (Core i7 processors with RTX 2070 graphics cards), Corsair mechanical keyboards and Respawn gaming chairs, new black and gray paint and TV screens for video reviews.

鈥淭he students have the ability to come in and sit down, study, go over game-play,鈥� Levesque said. 鈥淲e talk about, 鈥楾his is where you were positioned on the map. You should have been here. This is what happened.鈥欌��

Last semester, the varsity team consisted of two teams (Overwatch and Rocket League) with 12 students. Next semester, it will add two more teams (Counter-Strike and League of Legends) and jump to around 30 students. While there no scholarships now, Levesque said there are plans to add them.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all about locating and seeing what (game) has the most support within the collegiate scene,鈥� he said.

An in-house student media team is working on content such as videos, graphics and streaming matches in a partnership with 黑洞社区 TV.

Also in the Heskett Center, a gaming lab is under construction in a room formerly used for cardio workouts. That lab is available for students to use outside of varsity competition. Levesque plans for 15-20 computers and wants to use the room for tournaments and Shocker Gaming Club events. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to give Esports a home in the Heskett Center,鈥� Levesque said. 鈥淛ust like you would walk in to scan your ID for going to work out in the weight room, it鈥檚 the same sort of process. If I want to play Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch . . . any time the Heskett Center is open you walk into the new gaming lab.鈥�

Perhaps most important, the varsity team will have regular practice times, twice a week for two hours each practice. Last semester, class and work schedules made it difficult to establish a routine.

鈥淥ur first semester was all about diving into it and doing it,鈥� Levesque said. 鈥淲e learned a lot. We learned how to compete. What the students did was great in terms of building a foundation for the future.鈥�

Practices often consist of scrimmages against other universities, followed by a video review of tactics. Those sessions help communication and technical skills, said Joe Mazzara, a junior audio production major from Detroit. He is president of the Shocker Gaming Club and a volunteer assistant coach with the varsity team.

鈥淭hey became personally comfortable and now they鈥檙e getting more in-game knowledge of each other and playing off each other way better,鈥� Mazzara said.

The highlights of last semester鈥檚 competition included wins over North Texas and Texas Tech and competitive matches against other established programs.

鈥淲e beat schools that have been participating in collegiate Esports for a while,鈥� Levesque said. 鈥淚 know the talent we have as part of the program and I think we can really make some waves moving into next semester.鈥�