GAMING TO GREATNESS Boise State’s Esports program among the best in the nation

Brydon Black | News Editor | sports@stumedia.boisestate.edu

tor Jacob Palmer graduated from Boise State in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. He took a class with Dr. Haskel, where he cultivated a relationship with the current head coach. Palmer has been with the program since it started in 2017, eventually working his way to his current position.

Palmer said that the first priority of the program is to help students in their education and in getting their degrees. In addition to exceptional play, students are required to obtain their degree in order to be added to the wall of fame located in the arena.

Palmer credits the program’s enormous success to their team culture and Boise State being one of the first universities to start an official Esports varsity program where students can earn scholarships.

Boise State’s Esports team is coming off the heels of a record-breaking 1,000 wins for a Division I program, multiple championships and a brand new renovated arena — making the program one of the most prestigious in the nation.

Both teams faced each other in 2014, 2017 and 2018. What happened in those matchups?

Starting in 2017, the Bronco’s Esports team crushed any expectations that could have been conceived at the time. According to Dr. Chris “Doc” Haskell, head coach of Boise State Esports, the program has won four national championships and brought in over 1,100 wins during its short history.

Back in November, the team was voted the collegiate program of the year at the 2022 Tempest Awards.

Haskell was one of the program’s founders, which started in the College of Education before eventually moving over to the College of Innovation and Design. Haskel is hopeful that they’ll land with athletics in the future.

“If you think about it, we’re a televi- sion station with an Esports team. We have a lot of assets that organizations like athletics need,” Haskell said. “They need to sell broadcast time. We have between 3 and 5 million unique households a month watching our content, both with Twitch distribution and essentially new cable distribution.”

By new cable distribution, Haskell is referring to their airtime on ESTV, where he says Boise State’s Esports team represents about a sixth of ESTV’s overall content.

“That’s in half a billion homes, people tuning into esports. Hundreds of thousand of people tuning into one broadcast,” Haskell said.

Regular broadcasts are one of the ways the program is able to be fully self-supported, as they don’t receive any budget dollars from the university. Their largest donors include ICCU and the Army National Guard. They raise everything they spend, including salaries, travel, equipment upkeep and scholarships. The budget this past year was around $500,000, according to Haskell.

Boise State Esports Information Direc-

“Starting early in the scene allowed us to really make a name for ourselves. We could get to a lot of tournaments now that we have six years of competition behind us,” Palmer said. “We’re very big on maintaining a good team culture here. We don’t want to blame others, we don’t want to complain, we don’t want to deflect.”

The program’s team culture has helped create a winning one, with the program becoming a force in the Mountain West and in national tournaments.

Last spring, Boise State won the Mountain West Championship in Valerant, Rocket League and Overwatch. In December 2022, they won the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) national championship in Overwatch, 3-0, against the UT Dallas Comets in Philadelphia.

Another prestigious tournament the Broncos have qualified for throughout the last two semesters is the Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) tournament, put on by the game developer Psyonix.

“It’s very high competition. You have to qualify for it every year,” Palmer said. “Only the top teams are usually allowed in, so to just qualify for the event is considered an honor in and of itself.”

Gabriel “Gil” Reynolds is a sophomore studying computer science at Boise State who was recruited from Minnesota and plays for the varsity Rocket League team. Last semester, Reynolds helped lead the Broncos to a perfect 15-0 record in the Mountain West tournament, capping the season off with a 4-0 sweep in their second straight Rocket League Mountain West Championship.

“This is my fourth semester. I made it [to the CRL national tournament] for the first time my second semester, we qualified again this and last semester, so being able to go three out of four. It’s always a privilege to be able to play in big leagues like that,” Reynolds said. “I’m a big grinder, play a lot, so it’s nice to see the work pay off in that way.”

This fall semester, Reynolds and the Broncos’ Rocket League team finished the regular season 13-2, currently ranking third in the CRL western division. Maintaining that position by the end of the Spring semester could help them qualify for the 2023 international CRL tournament this summer.

If students want to get involved with the Boise State Esports community, Palmer said the first step would be for students to realize there’s a downtown facility open to all students to arrange community events or simply play whatever game their systems have.

“This is as much a part of the university as the library would be,” Palmer said. “Just students knowing they can hop on the orange shuttle here downtown, come here during weekdays and play anytime they want. That’s just a great resource for students to take advantage of.”

DID BACHMEIER OR GREEN HAVE A BETTER FIRST SEASON?

Comparing the stats between freshman quarterback Taylen Green and former quarterback Hank Bachmeier

Adam Bridges | Sports & Rec Editor | sports@stumedia.boisestate.edu

Both Taylen Green and Hank Bachmeier had great first seasons with the Boise State football team, but which quarterback left a better first impression?

Both Taylen Green and Hank Bachmeier had great first seasons with the Boise State football team, but which quarterback left a better first impression?

Although freshman quarterback Green is gaining a lot of popularity and publicity in the Boise area for his performance throughout the 2022 season, Bachmeier received similar attention during his first year at Boise State in 2019.

“The legend of Hank Bachmeier continues to grow,” Idaho Statesman reporter Michael Lycklama said in the first line of his Florida State game review in 2019. “And it’s only getting started.”

When comparing their first-year stats, Bachmeier played three fewer games, yet only has 163 fewer passing yards and five fewer passing touchdowns than Green.

Bachmeier also led the 2019 Broncos to a No. 14 ranking in the NCAA Top 25 and a 6-1 record in the seven full games he played.

He was considered a key piece to his team’s success throughout the season and was named one of the nation’s top true freshman players and top six pro-style passers in the 2019 recruiting class by 247Sports.

“Quarterback Hank Bachmeier has been one of the bright young stars of the 2019 season so far,” three-time Football Writers Association of America award winner J.P. Scott said. “He’s fearless in the passing attack and is going to keep the Air Force defensive backfield busy and on its heels most of the day.”

While the Boise State Broncos did not receive any Top 25 honors in 2022, Green did lead his team to the Mountain West championship and was 7-2 in the nine full games he played — not including the Oregon State or San Diego State games.

Green also received recognition for his plays throughout the season, being named Mountain West Offensive Player of the week twice, Mountain West Freshman of the Week award four times, Mountain West Freshman of the Year and College Football News Freshman All-America Second Team.

“Taylen is nice,” NFL Buffalo Bills receiver Khalil Shakir said at Boise State’s 2021 Pro Day. “He’s a young cat who I think is going to have a very, very huge impact here.”

While the accolades and passing stats are similar between the two quarterbacks in their first year, their rushing statistics set them apart.

Bachmeier only ran the ball 41 times for 69 yards and a touchdown during his first year. Green ran the ball twice as much as Bachmeier, but had eight times more rushing yards. Green finished his first season with 586 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 81 rushing attempts.