Watch: What’s going pro in esports really like?
Esports is already a multi-billion-dollar business, so what does that mean for the world of collegiate esports? Learn what it’s like to go pro.
Cameron Clark, York Daily Record
It’s been four years since Nicholls State University’s esports team was founded, and this year it’s making some big plays.
Colonel Esports is giving 10 scholarships to members of its competitive teams and one to its president. One of its two competitive teams has been invited to compete in a Sports Illustrated tournament. It’s obtaining new equipment and software that team members will use to compete and to teach others. And it’s brought in its first recruit, a student from El Paso, Texas.
Colonel Esports Coordinator Elizabeth Layton said the organization, which competes with other universities in video gaming similar to other spectator sports, is set up as much like a professional team as possible.
“So that if they ever wanted to go pro, … they’re already comfortable in that format,” Layton said.
Professional esports tournaments have exploded in popularity, and cash pools for winners can run in the tens of millions of dollars. Cash prizes are also sometimes awarded at the collegiate level, where the largest such prize is $150,000.
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Some of the organization’s latest moves come after it received a $25,000 donation from Rachel Callais, a local philanthropist, avid gamer and longtime Nicholls supporter. The money will buy new computer equipment and software.
The five members of the Valorant competitive team, the four members of the Call of Duty team and the president of the organization each receive a $500 scholarship for two semesters.
Evan Moore, club vice president and member of the team that competes in the Valorant video game, said the goal was to help reward players for making the top 24 in a league with more than 280 teams. In addition, the computer and software upgrades will make Nicholls’ teams more competitive.
“Our program was, I think, top three in non-scholarship programs,” More said.
Nicholls has two competitive teams, one for the game Call of Duty and the other for Valorant, both first-person shooters. Colonel Esports’ Valorant team is ranked 16th in the nation among 50 teams in Eastern College Athletic Conference Esports League. Nicholls’ Call of Duty team is ranked 24th among 280 in the collegiate CCL league.
At the invitation of Sports Illustrated, Nicholls’ Valorant team will compete in the qualifiers for the Collegiate Invitational in Ottawa, Canada, scheduled Feb. 4-5 at the TD PLACE Arena.
Colonel Esports, with about 60 members in total, also has Rocket League, League of Legends and Overwatch as games under its umbrella.
One of the scholarships was given to Mark Capps, of El Paso, Texas, who was recruited by the organization for his skills in Call of Duty. Capps, 22, a computer information systems major, was attending Collin Community College in Texas to complete his basic courses and was looking at universities nearby.
In his spare time, he would play Call of Duty with Andre Blanchard, a member of the Colonel Esports competitive team. Capps played the flex role, which means he can swap among roles to fill the team’s needs. While they play, team members communicate through a program called “Discord,” a video chat platform similar to Skype or Zoom.
After a couple of games, Blanchard asked Capps if he liked the idea of playing for a school, and Capps said he was interested. Darren Pitre, president of Colonel Esports, joined the Discord call and they discussed him joining.
Capps said the conversation barely centered around his gameplay; rather, Pitre asked about grades and study habits. Afterward, Pitre took Capps on a virtual tour of Nicholls’ Thibodaux campus with Discord, and he was sold.
“So when we talked, it was a little less of Call of Duty and more of like academic-wise,” Capps said. “His big thing was how I am as a student, so we went, like, over grades, my mentality of school.”
Ashten Taylor, 21, of New Orleans, was already a student at Nicholls when he joined Colonel Esports. He is receiving a scholarship; he said his friends back at home can’t believe it. Like Capps, he also plays a flex role for the Valorant team.
Each week, team members have to practice at least eight hours, but Taylor said many put in a lot more time. He said he logs at least 24-40 hours a week depending on how much studying he needs to do.
“It’s really good when you don’t have class until 12 the next day,” Taylor said.
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