In With the New

Catching up with Messiah's e-sports team

BY MARIO COSENTINO

In the fall of 2019, Messiah College announced the addition of another varsity sports team. Students now have the opportunity to try out and compete in the growing sport of competitive video gaming, also known as E-sports.

Theresa Gaffney was appointed as the head coach of the program which competes against other colleges and universities in the National Association of Collegiate E-sports. Although E-sports has been added as a five year pilot program, Messiah’s teams have already experienced success in a short period of time.

On February 15th, the League of Legends team got the chance to compete in the semi-finals of the PA Cup hosted by the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. Though they didn’t make the finals, they finished as one of the best teams in the state. According to Coach Gaffney, this is only the beginning for E-sports at Messiah.

“I expect within the next year that we have a stronger foundation for a truly competitive team,” Gaffney said. “We have very competitive players, but we’re going to have even stronger players and perhaps more players in other games we don’t yet have.”

The school currently offers teams for a variety of games such as Overwatch, League of Legends, Hearthstone and Rocket League. According to Gaffney, other games are in the process of being added.

One way that Gaffney hopes to advance the E-sports teams at Messiah is through scholarships.

“We are not currently a scholarship-offering program but we look to see a future [when] it will be,” Gaffney said. “It is likely in the future that we will offer some aid packages, at least for E-sports players. We want to get the best of the best at some point.”

E-sports is not under the guidance of the NCAA, so they are not bound by the same rules as other sports teams regarding scholarships.

This, along with the fact that E-sports is listed on Messiah’s athletics website, opens the door for tension and hostility between them and traditional sports teams. “

There is a perceived tension overall between athletics and E-sports at some schools,” Gaffney said. “Because I’ve been doing it a long time, I’ve seen it. I don’t feel it much here at Messiah.”

Instead of seeing a tension between the two groups, sophomore computer science major Joseph Tonnies has seen people on campus take interest in the E-sports program.

We are competitive, we are a varsity team.

“There’s just a lot of curiosity,” Tonnies said. “I haven’t really experienced any spite or anger towards the E-sports team. There’s a lot of inquiry like ‘what games do you guys play’ or ‘can I join?’”

Even though the physical requirements differ greatly, the same competitive nature motivates athletes in both sports.

“We are competitive, we are a varsity team,” Gaffney said. “We represent Messiah College and it requires a certain amount of skills that are different from others like track and field, basketball or soccer. It might not be what you consider a traditional athletic [sport], but it is a specialized competitively oriented experience for these players.”

Tonnies joined the Overwatch team after stumbling across an informational email about the tryouts. He played Overwatch in his free time, so he decided to give it a try.

“I came down here on the tryout day and just happened to make the team, and now I’m on the team with five other really cool guys,” Tonnies said.

Both Gaffney and Tonnies viewed E-sports as a great social activity and a way of bringing people together on campus. While plans to grow the program’s teams are still in effect, Messiah’s E-sports program also has an outreach side to it.

“The first Saturday in May, E-sports is organizing an event that will include a Super Smash Bros tournament and information panels to answer any questions the public has about the E-sports program,” Tonnies said. “It's our way of reaching out to the community.”

This event was canceled when the campus moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. E-sports is unlike any other group on campus because they are used to practicing and meeting without being in the same room. Even with social distancing and self-quarantining, the E-sports team can continue to practice and compete just like before.

In the upcoming years, Coach Gaffney sees her E-sports team as the standard-bearers for connecting students together on campus through shared interests such as video games.

“E-sports opens up socialization [opportunities] for students didn’t really exist before at Messiah and at other universities,” Gaffney said. “So that’s an opportunity to build community based on shared interest in these sort of competitive titles that we offer.”

Tonnies and Gaffney both pointed out that the gaming lounge, located next to the E-sports varsity room, is open for all students during non-quiet hours. Students can make use of two Nintendo Switches in this room to play against members of the team or to meet new friends — because after all, that’s what gaming is all about.