By Joseph Overturf
Multimedia Editor
Crowder’s newest sport, esports, is the only sport still actively being played. The coronavirus outbreak has had a small effect on the seasons of these teams, but they don’t seem to be stopping. Unlike other sports, all practices and games can be played online from home in isolation which allows them to still be played with the current rules set out by the government.
Misael Baltazar from the Fifa team at Crowder stated, “ It has been a smooth transition since I can see my family every day. I only got to see them once a month when I was at Crowder. The quarantine has allowed me to practice more Fifa since we can only stay inside. I miss competing in the esports lab because the team cheers and hypes me up. Stay safe and healthy everyone, and remember to stay at home.”
Crowder has recently joined in on the action with the addition of four esports teams to the college. The four games they chose were, Rocket League, Overwatch, Smash Bros, and Fifa. Crowder has 11 different teams with 21 total players.
Fifa is a game that is essentially a soccer manager. Each player controls their own soccer team and they play against each other. Crowder has 2 students that are on the Fifa team: Misael Baltazar and Ethan Merino. They both have been having great seasons and are currently playing in the playoffs.
At the time of writing this Ethan has advanced into the second round of the playoffs with a first-round bye for being the number 1 seed in the tournament with a record of 7 wins 1 loss, while Misael plays tonight as the 8 seed with 4 wins and 3 losses on April 1st, 2020 against Benjamin Carter the 25 seed from Jefferson State Community College.
Overwatch is a tactical team-based multiplayer first-person shooter where players on a team work together to attack or defend control points on the map or escort a payload in a limited amount of time. Crowder has 1 Overwatch team with 5 players: Zylin Jung, Nicholas Mayer, Myles Miller, Jeremiah Murphy, and Beau Wolfe.
They have a team name of Calamity and are currently in the first round of the playoffs as the 8 seed with a record of 2 wins 6 losses on the season, and they play the 1 seed in the tournament from Bismarck State College, the Mystcs.
Rocket League is a game in which players control a battle car where they can collect and use rocket boost to propel their cars playing soccer. Crowder has two rocket league teams: Limitless and Rowdy Rockets. The players for these teams include: Gregory Brown, Matthew Cole, William Daingerfield, Jonathan Dittmer, Tyler Lloyd, Bradden Smith, and Michael younger.
Both teams are in the first round of the playoffs. Limitless is currently the 8 seed with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses on the season. They will play the 9 seed from Carl Sandburg College, the RL Chargers. The Rowdy Rockets are the 11 seed in the tournament with a record of 3 wins 5 losses on the season. They will play the Garden City Community College team named Gold who is the 6 seed.
Super Smash Brothers is a game that features various characters from different Nintendo franchises. The goal is to eliminate or throw your opponent off of the map. There are 2 different game modes: there are doubles where you and a partner fight 2 other people and singles where you have a one versus one showdown with a single player. The roster for Super Smash Brothers includes Jeremy Banning, Tyler Carpenter, Peyton Harper, Melissa Hurtado, John Karako, Wesley Krouse, and Orion Pattyson.
When it comes to doubles crowder has 3 teams: Maximum Overdrive, Dying Star, and Starling Strike. Maximum Overdrive are in the first round of the playoffs with a record of 4 wins for losses as the 16 seed playing Hinds Community College the 17 seed. Also in the first round is the 15 seed Scarlet Strike also with a record of 4 wins 4 losses on the season. They will play the Bismarck State College Mystcs an 18 seed. In the second round with a bye, Dying Star is a 4 seed in the tournament with a season record of 5 wins and 3 losses.
There are 3 teams for the solo Smash Bros: Snowcone, Princess, and Ultima. All 3 solo teams are in the first round. Snowcone is the 39 seed with a record of 4 wins 4 losses and plays the Jefferson State Community College team Midas the 26 seed. Coincidentally in the first round Princess, the 23 seed with a 5 and 3 record actually plays Ultima the 42 seed with a 4 and 4 record.
Between May 1st to 3rd, Crowder held their first Esports tournament but not in the way you would think. “The game will be Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on Nintendo Switch which requires online membership as well as online access. Prizes will be awarded to the top two finishers with the winner earning free tuition for 3 credit hours and runner-up earning Crowder Bookstore gift card.”
The very first esports event happened on October 19, 1972, at Stanford University. The game they played was called Spacewar and the event was called the “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics”. Players would drive to the room and play the video game against each other for not only bragging rights but the main prize, a 1-year free subscription to the Rolling Stones magazine. Here we are almost 48 years later and so so much has changed.
There are thousands of tournaments every year across hundreds of games played for millions and millions of dollars. To take it even a step farther, there are now video games played in the Olympics in which these esports players can win gold medals. It has even reached the point where students can now play video games for scholarships to attend universities.
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