If you’ve been keeping up with the world of professional sports at all, you may have heard rumblings about the newest up-and-coming contender in the arena: Esports. Professional video games.
Teams compete in a variety of game titles, practicing for hours on end to get their teamwork and levels of skill to the highest peak possible. The stadiums are packed, the fans and their energy are electric, and some of the top players in the various leagues are getting advertisement deals and other lucrative offers at levels on equal footing with the NBA and NFL.
It’s becoming clear that Esports are on the rise, and they’re here to stay for the foreseeable future. A side effect of the explosion of Esports in the professional sphere has led to a trickle-down of Esports on the collegiate level, spreading to campuses nationwide, including Concordia.
The college began the integration process when two people: James Jehlik, the Associate Director of Academic and User Technology Services at ITS, and Noah Hanson, a recent graduate. Jehlik and Hanson both worked at ISC, and the staff there had often tossed around the idea of creating an Esports team at Concordia.
The idea stuck, and Hanson wrote a proposition letter in late 2019, which highlighted exactly how important it would be for students who didn’t have the opportunities to represent the school with their passions and interests in the same way that other students get the chance to represent Concordia.
Hanson explained in the letter that Esports would be a good opportunity for students who might not have a community for their interest, and that the formation of a dedicated Esports team would give students the chance to create a community with each other, while also having the support of the college and student body.
“He was able to compel that change,” Jehlik said.
This letter resonated with President Craft and his cabinet, and they approved Hanson’s proposition, but like many things that began in late 2019 to early 2020, things had to be put on hold due to the COVID-19. The Esports team would have to be put on hold. A few years later, when the campus had returned to a state of normalcy, the process could begin again.
Jehlik handled a majority of the administrative side of the process, while Hanson was the student face of the project.
“Noah effectively kicked off the project, and towards the end of his time here, he carried the ball over the finish line. It wouldn’t have happened without Noah,” Jehlik said.
Hanson’s biggest challenge was working on securing funds from SPIF, the Special Projects and Initiatives Fund when presenting his case to the Student Government Association.
The proposal was passed, and it was official. Esports was coming to Concordia. Jehlik has big goals for the team, seeing a future of live competition against other colleges.
His and Hanson’s goal is to give those students who might not have a “thing” at Concordia that “thing” exactly. They want students who’ve poured hours into these games and the time spent working as a team, just the same as the many athletic programs at Concordia. And after all of the work they had put in to make that happen, all that was left was to use the funding to create the Esports lab, and to hire a head coach.
The Esports lab, located in the basement of Parke Region, is outfitted with a set of new gaming-specific computers, monitors, gaming chairs, and keyboards. They also have access to an exclusive fiber internet line.
The search for a coach led to Lucas Campoverde, who is now known as “Coach Campo” to students. A former police officer in East Grand Forks, Campoverde made the career and location shift to Moorhead after being shot in the line of duty.
“I was dealing with the mental health aspect of that, and I just had to get out of East Grand Forks,” Campoverde said.
Campoverde had experience helping create an Esports team in the high school system in Grafton, North Dakota. He also worked with an independent Esports company, and in media and the technical side of the East Grand Forks local news.
This led him to the position of head coach of the Esports team at Concordia. Despite the little time he has been on campus, Campoverde is already making himself and his presence known on campus. He’s at all kinds of campus events, most notably at Cobber Expo, where he was dressed as the character Reaper from the game Overwatch, drumming up interest for the team.
Campoverde especially emphasizes that he’s someone who wants to be involved with the students and their well-being, and he’ll always have an open door to talk to anyone who needs it.
If interested in getting involved with the Esports team, Campoverde encourages anyone interested to follow the team’s Discord server @CobberEsports, to get information on upcoming competition, information on the lab hours, and how to support Campoverde and the team.
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