Washington State Community College forms eSports team

MARIETTA, Ohio. (WTAP) -

Washington State Community College has formed a brand new eSports team joining Marietta college in the Mid-Ohio Valley as the two colleges with the new program.

“I would say we officially began at the beginning of the summer. We officially started making plans and doing stuff probably about June 1st. And you know from there we started just kind of planning out and where we go from here,” said head coach Mark Riley. “Do we join some leagues? Do we just stay at club? Do we do both? So we’re kind of exploring both avenues that we have right now, but I think our big thing is we want to try to get as many students involved in the program as we can.”

ESports has been a steady growing sport nationwide and now, local schools and colleges have been including it as varsity sports and clubs.

“You know, I think a lot of the college sports programs that are out there, they are always they’re looking for the top players. We’re not necessarily, I mean, I’m definitely looking for some of the top players, but I’m also looking for players that just want to get into E sports and want to get better,” said Riley. “I’ve met a lot of players who are, you know, silver level diamond level and they’re trying to get to, you know, the those higher levels in the games.”

Washington State is now the latest as they began the program earlier this summer and have ten kids currently on the team.

“I am very excited the upcoming season is going to be very exciting. I’m hoping we’ll compete in as many games as we can. As of right now, we’ve currently got an Overwatch team ready to compete. I’ve got six on the team. You only need five. I’ve got three guys and three girls, so that’s definitely exciting,” said Riley. “We’ve almost got enough for a Rocket League team and we’ve already got enough for some of the other games as well. So that’s coming really, really excited.”

The community college is making great strides in the program already and have a lot of games to offer as they already have a full six person team for Overwatch this upcoming year.

“I feel like we’re, you know, I initially just wanted to say hey. If we can compete, that’d be great, but now I think we’re going to compete and actually do great in a lot of these leagues,” the head coach said.

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