Logan Domer
ltd001@marietta.edu
Marietta College recently added a new Esports club that began in the fall of 2018 and has been growing ever since. The new club is directed by Marietta Faculty, Rick Smith and Coached by Matt Williamson. Esports is a competitive video gaming phenomenon that is growing across America very rapidly, and Marietta College is jumping on board, along with a lot of other colleges. Right now, Marietta Esports program is considered a club, However, they are working towards changing this to actually become a Varsity Team.
Our Esports team currently consists of around thirty members that participate in a total of six different games. These games consist of League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Fortnite, Rainbow Six: Siege, and PubG. However, the club is not set and stone with this strict 6 games; they can fluctuate depending on the members. If there is enough interest in certain video games, the staff is open to suggestions of starting new games. There is no specific season for the Esports club. There are tournaments that are held by third-party organizations for each game in both the spring and fall semesters. Depending on what game it is, the organizations will differ, but we compete against other colleges, no matter the division.
The Marietta Esports team competes in the Great Lakes Esports Conference which includes schools in our region, some of these schools are fellow OAC schools. The tournaments are live-streamed through twitch and are even broadcasted by fellow Marietta College students. Therefore, if you are interested in being a part of the club and do not necessarily want to play video games, there are other ways to be involved.
To be a part of the Esports club the requirements are the same as if you were to play a sport here at Marietta College. Players must be full-time students here and must maintain a 2.0 GPA. They understand that people are involved with multiple different organizations on campus so they attempt to keep the schedules flexible. They try to get people together for practice 1-3 times a week for a few hours, normally they hold these practices later in the evening. There is actually a facility on campus where these practices and tournaments are held. It is a decent size room in the back of the Gathering Place with 12 alien ware gaming PC’s. Most of the matches are required to be played on the PC; however, the computers allow for players to connect console remotes to them and play.
This is a unique club that is starting to take off in a lot of schools in America. Marietta College Esports is constantly changing for the better, and it has plenty of room to grow. If you are interested in learning more about the club, there are multiple social media pages that are accessible. You can find them on Twitter @mariettaesports and facebook at Marietta College Esports. You can even go look at all of their previous matches on YouTube by looking up “Marietta College Esports.” To join the club, get in contact with either Rick Smith or Matt Williamson at rcs003@marietta.edu and williamm.marietta.edu.
