Esports with strong showing in first season
The MVNU Esports program has had a strong start so far this semester, with plenty of challenges.
According to MVNU Esports Coach Justin Nowicki, the first season “has been great! It’s been a lot of fun leading this pioneer group of esports players.”
One of their main successes this season has been with their Rocket League team, going 4-1 in the Great Lakes Esports Conference, just finishing their first tournament series with the National Association of Collegiate Esports with a 50% win rate.
The team has also seen some success with Overwatch and Fortnite, with their Overwatch team running 3-2 in the conference, and some of their Fortnite players highly ranked as well, with Spencer Smith and Keylor Vega running in second place.
Of course, with a new program also came some new challenges. “I’d say the biggest challenge has been building the framework for something new. Esports is a new category of collegiate competition, so we have had to build a lot of competition infrastructure in this first year,” Nowicki said. “We joined the Great Lakes Esports Conference for regular season play in the fall, with a LAN tournament to be held in the spring. We’re competing against some really great teams, including Tiffin University, Aquinas College and Trine University. Our players have really risen to the occasion and are representing MVNU very well.”
Photo from MVNU Sports Information Department.