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May 3, 2021 | The Mercury Dallas Skyline to practice, play on UTD Courts

Minor professional basketball team to spend upcoming season on campus

ROSHAN KHICHI | MERCURY STAFF

Game audiences are permitted, with safety protocols and limited attendance.

LAUREN DOUGHERTY

Life and Arts Editor

The Dallas Skyline, a minor professional basketball team, is calling the UTD Activity Center and University Housing home for its 2021 season.

The Skyline is part of the 35-team The Basketball League (TBL), which Team Market Owner Prescott Mack said is considered to be the third level of professional basketball in the US. Mack said that the TBL is considered a showcase league – ideally, players will move on to play at a higher level, either in the US or abroad.

“If you compare to UTD, we’re like NCAA DIII,” Mack said. “So, we’re still a really high level of basketball, just not as high as a Division II or Division I.”

The Skyline opened the season on April 9 to a crowd of about 150. In addition to the players and staff – all of whom get tested weekly and are required to wear masks – the team brought in cheerleaders, outside food vendors and two youth basketball teams. Mack said that he doesn’t anticipate selling more than 500 tickets per game, which meets the AC’s current 25% capacity limit.

“It doesn’t really affect us that much because we can still social distance and operate the way we need to operate, like sell enough tickets to complete our budget,” Mack said.

The team started competing during the 2020 season, using the Loos Fieldhouse in Addison as their home court. Mack said that from the beginning, it’s been a goal of his to have the team play at UTD. Ideally, he’d like for the Skyline to play at UTD for at least three seasons, before eventually getting into their own gym space.

“I knew the facility at UTD was really good,” he said. “I knew that the campus was really nice, and it always looks better to play at a college campus or any type of arena.”

Director of Athletics Bill Petitt said that their agreement with the Skyline allows the team to use the AC for two practices each week as well as 12 home games through the second week of June, but that there haven’t yet been any discussions of use beyond this season.

“We just have to see how this season goes and see if it would be something that we would be interested in doing,” Petitt said. “I think about all the freshmen orientations and the camps that our teams have in the summer normally, so I don’t know if that would fit into the schedule or not.”

As the Skyline goes into its second season, they’re still getting established in North Dallas; Mack holds office space in Richardson, and he wants the team to be active in community out-

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ANNA PHENGSAKMUEANG | PHOTO EDITOR

In their final winning match in the OWCC, UTD’s communication improvements showed in their match against Ohio State.

Comets land top eight in Overwatch Collegiate Championship

Overwatch team also wins two other tournaments

BEN NGUYEN

Managing Editor

UTD’s Overwatch team just finished in the top eight of the Overwatch Collegiate Championship (OWCC), going on to ride the momentum into two tournament wins.

Despite having to compete remotely, the Overwatch team persevered beyond what was already its highest placement in the team’s history in the OWCC. This follows an earlier placement in the top ten Overwatch colleges by coaches in the nation and what some players say is a massive improvement in team structure and communication. ATEC junior Kaedmon “Kinetic” Penney says he realizes the irony of improving communication after being forced to quarantine.

“The communication aspect is definitely our biggest improvement,” Kinetic said. “Being able to have conversations about topics in and out of game because being in a team environment is never easy.”

One way the team improved its communication this semester was through the help of Louis “Tikatee” Lebel-Wong – alongside startup PECO – in coaching the team. UTD was chosen as one of the test-run schools for the Adopt A College program, and CS junior Kyler “Blank” Marcantel says that Tikatee played a major part in the team’s enhancement this semester.

“So, the two big things he gave us is early on he helped us set up a communication structure, which was kind of who has what role originally, and those were like hard walls. But over time it’s turned more into responsibilities that need to be done and anyone can do it,” Blank said. “He’s also done a lot in the form of information, just like what jobs you need to do with certain compositions.”

Overwatch team compositions take many forms including a “double bubble” setup focusing on the tank characters Winston and Zarya or a brawl composition centering on DPS characters Mcree and Mei. UTD mainly plays variations on a brawl composition, but Blank says that they’re able to play multiple variations to fight different teams in different scenarios.

In their final winning match in the OWCC, UTD’s communication improvements showed in their match against Ohio State. Both Kinetic and