Collision on the Coast

The Rapid Growth Of Esports

By Brandon Kwon

Since the beginning my freshman year at Virginia Wesleyan University, the Marlins Esports program has grown tremendously. Going from only 15 students to over 35 today is an incredible achievement and just tells the story of how much the Esports program has expanded.

I have been the captain of our Rocket League team from the very beginning. From running practices to recruiting with my on-campus job in enrollment, I have worked in every aspect of the Esports program.

Going into the spring season, we had many high hopes, given we were hosting the first in-person LAN event at Virginia Wesleyan for Rocket League. While we got off to a rocky start, we picked ourselves up as a team and began to climb the rank system in preparation for the Collision on the Coast event.

Hosted on February 25, 2023, Collision on the Coast was a double elimination tournament with a prize pool of $2,500. 17 collegiate teams coming from as far as Minneapolis, Minnesota were vying for the top 4 spots to earn winnings from the event.

Several upsets occurred throughout the day, but most notably coming from our own VWU Blue roster as the 6 seed upsetting both the 3 seed (King University) and 4 seed (University of New Haven) in several highly contested match ups. The Marlins finished 4th in the event earning the Esports program $300 to further upgrades of systems or allowing more teams to travel and recruit new players to Virginia Wesleyan University.

Virginia Wesleyan

My gaming skills grew from competing against higher ranked schools, along with planning and event management skills, prominently shown throughout the day overcoming several technical and physical obstacles. Which through the Batten Honors College, I was prepared to do so, as the faculty and staff were supporting the event as a new and innovative way to show not just ourselves in the program, but those who had not heard of Esports before, interested and intrigued by what we were capable of accomplishing.