From new game offerings and record participation to fundraising marathons and post-season competition, the Wayland Baptist eSports program recently completed a memorable fall season.
"I was pretty happy with it. I'd say it was our best season yet," WBU eSports coach
Duncan Sweeney said.
In its fourth year, the program attracted a record 43 student-athletes this fall, which was enough to form a junior varsity team for the first time, in Smash.
"If we get one more Rocket League player we'll have a JV team in that, too, so it's possible for other sports. It's on a game-by-game basis," Sweeney said. "We ended last year with 28 or 29, so I was pretty happy with (our growth). That's a lot of students."
The "Meadows Mothership" computer lab features 25 gaming computers, so there were times when the room was at maximum capacity.
Part of the reason for the growth was additional game options, including Chess and League of Legends.
"Chess ended up being NACE's most popular with (more than) 900 entrants," Sweeney said.
Of those, 360 made the chess post-season tournament, including two Pioneers, junior
Ilan Joffe of Australia and freshman
David Wippler. In the double-elimination bracket, both Joffe and Wippler went 1-1 the first round before being eliminated the second week.
WBU's Fornite team also made the post-season, going "above and beyond," according to Sweeney. "One of our duos –
Kenneth Judkins (Teddy) and
Aiden Childs – placed pretty high: 13
th out of 46 schools." Both Judkins and Childs are freshmen, so it was their first season playing Fortnite as a duo. "They will just get better and better as they continue to work with each other," Sweeney said.
The post-season advancement by Chess and Fortnite marked the first time the Pioneers made the playoffs since doing it in Overwatch and Smite the program's first year in 2019.
Sweeney said Hearthstone also was a popular game this fall and another in which Wayland – specifically Joffe and
Ethan Byers – fared well. "In every tournament we went at least 3-3," Sweeney said.
"All of the teams really put in a lot of work this season," Sweeney said.
The coach said Wayland is "really feeling the pain of NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports) not having different divisions. We're going up against schools that in some cases give full rides" in terms of scholarships.
"As they get more schools, I think they will add divisions based on school size and how much money the program has and things like that."
Between all nine game titles (Rocket League, Smash 4v4, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Overwatch 2, Chess, Fortnite [Traditional & Zero Build], and League of Legends), Sweeney said Wayland hosted "close to 200 games" during the fall.
"We had more titles than ever before and so many games this semester," the coach said, adding that there were weeks when games were going on "pretty much every night."
In addition to all the competitions, WBU eSports also took time to host a couple of other events.
First, the Pioneers put on a pair of tournaments in conjunction with the Plainview Rotary Club during that group's annual Runningwater Draw Arts & Crafts Festival held in mid-October at the Ollie Liner Center. The first tournament was an exhibition between Wayland and the eSports teams from Amarillo College and Lubbock Christian University.
The next day, WBU hosted an open tournament. "It was great. We had 22 entrants and gave out first, second and third places. They all got cash prizes. It was a lot of fun," Sweeney said.
Wayland also hosted its second annual fundraiser earlier this month, playing a 12-hour game night marathon from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The Pioneers exceeded their goal by raising $1,260 for UMC Children's Hospital Lubbock and its Children's Miracle Network.
"Both were very successful events," Sweeney said. "It was just a great semester all-around."
Sweeney and the eSports Pioneers get a much-deserved break until January when they'll begin a spring semester that figures to look much like the fall with all the same games.
"They've shifted to all titles running both semesters," Sweeney said. "We'll pretty much do it all again."
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