Fast-growing varsity Esports program, gaming lab put WSU on the map

Cameron Tredway knew about collegiate Esports powers such as the University of North Texas and the University of California, Irvine. He didn’t plan on competing against them.

Tredway’s place in the world of competitive Esports changed quickly last semester, and he is pleased to see Wichita State jumping in to a growing fusion of sports and entertainment with its new varsity team.

“It’s very, very accessible for people to be able to watch Esports these days,” said Tredway, a junior industrial engineering major from Wichita. “It’s spreading very quickly. Even ESPN has been airing the Overwatch league on some of their channels.”

One moment, Tredway played Overwatch with the Shocker Gaming Club. A few discussions later, he played on Wichita State’s varsity Esports team under the direction of Tyler Levesque.

“I had just heard there was a gaming club and I wanted to play with them,” Tredway said. “All of a sudden, Tyler comes in and says, ‘Hey, guys, I’m your coordinator for the semester . . . and you’re entered in two tournaments.”

Levesque, Wichita State’s Esports coordinator, moved fast during his first semester, putting together two teams and arranging practices on the fly. When his Esports students return in the fall, the program will look and feel much different.

“Schools with Esports programs have been around for a while now, maybe three, four, five years,” Levesque said. “One of the first lessons we learned was that people take this very seriously.”

The varsity Esports room in the Heskett Center is outfitted with seven Cybertron gaming towers (Core i7 processors with RTX 2070 graphics cards), Corsair mechanical keyboards and Respawn gaming chairs, new black and gray paint and TV screens for video reviews.

“The students have the ability to come in and sit down, study, go over game-play,” Levesque said. “We talk about, ‘This is where you were positioned on the map. You should have been here. This is what happened.’”

Last semester, the varsity team consisted of two teams (Overwatch and Rocket League) with 12 students. Next semester, it will add two more teams (Counter-Strike and League of Legends) and jump to around 30 students. While there no scholarships now, Levesque said there are plans to add them.

“It’s all about locating and seeing what (game) has the most support within the collegiate scene,” he said.

An in-house student media team is working on content such as videos, graphics and streaming matches in a partnership with WSU TV.

Also in the Heskett Center, a gaming lab is under construction in a room formerly used for cardio workouts. That lab is available for students to use outside of varsity competition. Levesque plans for 15-20 computers and wants to use the room for tournaments and Shocker Gaming Club events. 

“We’re excited to give Esports a home in the Heskett Center,” Levesque said. “Just like you would walk in to scan your ID for going to work out in the weight room, it’s the same sort of process. If I want to play Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch . . . any time the Heskett Center is open you walk into the new gaming lab.”

Perhaps most important, the varsity team will have regular practice times, twice a week for two hours each practice. Last semester, class and work schedules made it difficult to establish a routine.

“Our first semester was all about diving into it and doing it,” Levesque said. “We learned a lot. We learned how to compete. What the students did was great in terms of building a foundation for the future.”

Practices often consist of scrimmages against other universities, followed by a video review of tactics. Those sessions help communication and technical skills, said Joe Mazzara, a junior audio production major from Detroit. He is president of the Shocker Gaming Club and a volunteer assistant coach with the varsity team.

“They became personally comfortable and now they’re getting more in-game knowledge of each other and playing off each other way better,” Mazzara said.

The highlights of last semester’s competition included wins over North Texas and Texas Tech and competitive matches against other established programs.

“We beat schools that have been participating in collegiate Esports for a while,” Levesque said. “I know the talent we have as part of the program and I think we can really make some waves moving into next semester.”