Zachery Simpkins
zas004@marietta.edu
Each Valentine’s Day, Marietta College celebrates the Day of Giving. The long Blue Line of Marietta College donate to different organizations on campus during this event which leads to a competitive spirit arising from these distinct groups. All the separate groups on campus have their own special ways of attracting donations; the esports program is no different.
The esports program is one of the newest organizations on campus, but in the brief time since its conception as a varsity program it has grown lasting traditions. One of these traditions is their Day of Giving twelve-hour live stream.
From ten in the morning until ten at night, students and coaches played video games live on Twitch for all to view on their Twitch channel twitch.tv/mariettaesports. The players, Aiden Gatland, Peyton Engel, Jacqueline Lauer, Aaron Crum, Jason VonFeldt, and Ryan Boggs, helped by streaming different video game titles throughout the day. Coach Derek Games and director Matt Williamson helped organize and even streamed games themselves to promote donations and alumni participation during the Day of Giving stream.
Although the Esports program does not have as many alumni as a more established organizations such as the rowing teams, many donations are made each year towards esports. The Marietta College Esports program obtained $670 in donations during the twelve-hour long stream from 10 different donors with the largest donation being $250.
On top of these donations the organization also won the Alumni Participation Challenge for Small Teams which added $500 to the total amount earned. Hence, the esports program raised a total of $1170 during Founder’s Day week. These donations will go to a great use and hopefully continue to build and grow this program at Marietta College. Some of the gifts have gone to improving streaming equipment and the team’s facilities as well as creating new team’s and recruiting more students to Marietta College for the esports program. The esports program’s support from its alums and current players continues to grow, and they cannot wait to stream again next year.
