NOT YOUR PARENTS’ COLLEGE SPORTS NOT YOUR PARENTS’ COLLEGE SPORTS New England Tech Offers Esports at the Varsity Level

One of the fastest growing programs in college athletics today didn’t exist a generation ago. Electronic sports, or esports, is competition centered around video gaming, which has been elevated in recent years with major tournaments now televised on ESPN. At New England Institute of Technology (NEIT), e-gaming is a college sport like any other, with player recruitment and try-outs, athletic scholarships, professional coaching, and an emphasis on developing a winning culture.

The private, non-profit technical university takes esports seriously as an academic program and a varsity-level sport, hiring coaches and supplying state-of-the-art computer equipment for players. “It’s a little more serious than a student-run club,” says Brandon Eigenbrode, esports coordinator and head coach of the NEIT team. “It’s definitely getting a lot more popular; the Rhode Island Interscholastic League added esports, and this year we hosted the championship. A bunch of high schools came in and got to see the space we use.”

Currently, the NEIT Tigers field over 20 students playing across four different games: Valorant, Overwatch, Rocket League, and Super Smash Brothers. The program is relatively new with 2022-23 being its inaugural year playing in the National Esports Collegiate Conference. Like traditional sports, activities include team practice, professional coaching, and reviewing tape results of prior games, much like a football team would do on a Monday morning. Games are live-streamed on Twitch, an interactive live-streaming service.

“Every week, you play a match with a different school,” says Eigenbrode. “We take screenshots of the scores, and you post them on a score channel. There’s a live spreadsheet that lets you know how each team is doing.” Unlike most varsity teams, the sport is co-ed, and Eigenbrode is working to recruit more women in a sport that has historically been male-dominated. “Since we started our fall season, there has been a larger female presence in the esports center. It’s something I want to see in the future.”

Coaches focus on growth and success. “It is similar to coaching a traditional sport; there is a lot of conditioning,” explains Eigenbrode. “There is also game knowledge that goes into it. For example, in Valorant, every single gun has a different recoil pattern, so we review things like shooting your gun, understanding which way your gun is going to move, and using your mouse to counteract that. It’s a lot of small learning, and it varies greatly for each game.”

The team has already experienced some success; in the 2022-2023 season, they won in two divisions, the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Rocket League Emergents Atlantic Division, as well as the NECC Valorant Challengers Northeast Division. It’s serious business but a lot of fun, and students bond over the shared experience. “A lot of students can be introverted in college, and this has really helped many students meet people with similar interests,” adds Eigenbrode. Learn more at NEIT.edu/esports

| 7:00pm

AGING DISGRACEFULLY - SUMMER AGING

Thursday 8/24 | 1:30pm

ELVIS - ROBERT BLACK SHOW

Saturday 8/26 | 8:00pm BON JOVI-BON JERSEY SUMMER CAMP SESSION 8/7-8/26: 9am-3pm M-F

7-18

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Traumatic Brain Injury

• PTSD

• Post Concussion Syndrome

• ADD/ADHD

• OCD

• Long Covid Brain Fog