Esports levels up on the Quad
The USU Esports Club held their second-annual tournament during Festival on the Quad, and it was bigger and better than before.
What started as a fun, casual event has turned into a fan-favorite, spurring interest in the sport from students across campus. Last year, the club put on a Super Smash Bros. tournament. This year, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was added, along with bigger prizes and more participants.
“Last year I didn’t do a lot of the esports stuff, and I wanted to get more involved, so I decided this was a perfect opportunity,” said Annie Houston, a second-year member of the club.
Some students joined the tournament reminiscing on childhood memories. Others wanted to prove their skills.
“My younger sister and I used to play all the time when we were kids, and I used to beat her. I felt really good about myself,” sophomore Cadence Rees said. “I’m not going to lie, I haven’t played in a few years, but we were like, ‘We might as well just go have some fun. Try it out.’”
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. The first esports event occurred in 1972 at Stanford University. Twenty-four students competed in the game “Spacewar” for the chance to win a year-long subscription to the Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1980, the first official video game tournament was held. The Space Invaders Championship held 10,000 participants and received widespread media attention.
Today, tournaments are held around the world, offering prizes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Collegiate esports is definitely on the rise,” said Brandon Herrin, executive council member of the USU Esports Club. “In recent years, lots of big programs started to pick up in scholarships and players. Big tournaments are hosted both by private groups and game publishers.”
The Mountain West Conference has also held tournaments for participating colleges. Herrin said Boise State was one of the first big programs in the conference and has significantly expanded their group.
“Even as the industry as a whole has had some issues recently, collegiate esports has continued to grow pretty quickly,” he said. “We’re just trying to support it here at Utah State and grow it to the point where we can have a program like others, like football where players are spending hours every week, practicing and getting ready for competition.”
Sophomore Nathan Macintosh was drawn to the tournament because of the big screen on the Quad. He wasn’t playing in the tournament but enjoyed watching a fan-favorite game. He hasn’t always thought of esports on the same level as other collegiate sports, but he’s happy it’s growing at USU.
“If there’s any sort of competition to it, I feel like it could be a sport,” Macintosh said. “Probably most video games are competitive in some way or another.”
According to their website, the club “exists to give USU students a place to enjoy video games in both casual and competitive environments. Esports is an emerging industry, and we hope to champion Utah State University’s support of the medium through competition and community.”
The club operates out of the Esports Center where teams have access to top-of-the-line PCs and peripherals from the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department and Student Affairs/Campus Recreation. The ESC features lounge areas where students can take part in casual gaming activities, socialize, study or relax.
Annie Houston made it to the second round of the tournament. She has been in the club since last year and says Mario Kart is her favorite because it’s more luck-based than Smash Bros. She joined the club for the games and the friends.
“I like playing games, and it’s a good spot to meet people who also like playing games. You can most likely find someone who likes the same game as you so you can talk about that,” Houston said. “It’s nice to go hang out, especially if you don’t have any online friends. You can go hang out with people and do multiplayer stuff.”
Herrin joined the club after and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When campus shut down and students were forced to stay in their apartments, he turned to gaming. He and his friends frequently spent time playing with and against each other. He found a new community of friends and decided to join one of the club’s competitive teams.
Leadership is involved in everyday activities of the club, organizing casual tournaments like Festival on the Quad and competitive teams as well. The club has
several competitive teams across a variety of game titles, all of which compete in collegiate or private tournaments across the nation.
“Teams depend on if we have people who want to compete in those games. We are always on the lookout for new ones. We’re looking to field teams in fighting games this year, but in total, we have about 15 game titles that we compete in,” Herrin said.
Their most popular games with competing teams include Valorant, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege and Halo Infinite.
The club held its first open tournament at Festival on the Quad in 2022. The event is part of their effort to expand knowledge of the club across campus.
“Last year, it was a pretty big success. We’re trying to expand our offering and expand appeal to more people,” Herrin said. “We felt like these two games were the most common, especially Mario Kart. Everyone has played it at one point or another in their lives.”
Sam Galati won the Mario Kart tournament after several rounds of races. Four people played against each other and the top two moved on to the next round. The final four raced on three different courses and Galati placed first every time.
“I’m pretty happy,” Galati said. “I like Mario Kart and I’m pretty good at it. I’ve been playing all growing up.”
The Teddy Buggy was his cart of choice throughout the tournament but his only strategy was to focus on doing good lines and use his own controller, the Nintendo Switch Pro.
Matthew Peters and Ashton Gee had a different approach to the Super Smash Bros competition.
“I like to play really aggressively. It doesn’t work well against, like, really good players but against more inexperienced players. You can kind of overwhelm them, and it gives me an advantage,” Peters said. “If it’s not working, I try to change the pace of the game a little bit and see what works best against that player.”
Gee said esports are all a mental game.
“I evaluate how good they are based on some basic leading questions, such as ‘How long have you played this game?’ and ‘Who do you main?’ and then I pull a counter pick out of my back pocket, perfectly suited to that character’s weakness and the individual’s psyche in the moment of time. I study psychology for this game,” Gee said.
His competitive edge stems from his love for the game.
“I love Smash Bros. My sense of purpose comes from being better than people at this game and if I’m not winning, I’m lost.”
Whether playing for fun or seriously competing, the club wants all students to feel welcome. The ESC will be open Monday through Friday, 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturdays from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. More information on joining the club can be found on the Campus Rec website.
“I mean, really, it’s just for us. It’s just been about trying to build a community. We’re here to give people a place to have fun, enjoy each other’s company and play some games,” Herrin said. “I encourage people to come hang out with us and have a good time. We’re just trying to have fun.”