The Wayne State College Esports team concluded tryouts for the upcoming competitive season on Jan. 22.
WSC has teams in a little over 15 games with a variety of players across all of them. Going into this year, WSC has had a heavy underclassmen presence come through and join making the team is relatively young. Both the varsity and academy sides have seen growth.
Drew Kurtenbach is going into his second season as the WSC Esports head coach, and his third-year coaching esports in general. “The big thing for me coming into a new program was focusing on players wanting to be here.” He said, “Getting the buy in with both the older players and the newer ones as their brand-new coach has been rewarding.” Kurtenbach says he has been focusing on player development and having well-rounded values including making sure the team is doing well in the classroom.
Tryouts look different for each game, some players sign up and they are on the team, others like Overwatch or Smash Bros play against other players in The Den for two to three hours testing their mentality and composure.
The varsity team is built to win at the highest skills levels and composure within the games. The academy team focuses on player development in the games they want to play. “What makes them have the most fun while doing their best” Varsity titles are Super Smash Bros, Overwatch, League of Legends and Rocket League. The Den follows a schedule for their season. Valorant is played on Mondays, Tuesdays are for League of Legends and Super Smash Bros, Thursdays are Rocket League and Fridays are for Overwatch.
Preseason matches start this week. The regular season is seven weeks long and playing remotely in an eight-team conference. The top four teams in each conference make the playoffs for the post season competition.
Gustavo Vallejo is a sophomore from Shelby, Nebraska and has been playing on the esports team for two years. The main game he plays is Overwatch for the team. “I love the sense of community.” He said. “I have met most of my friends though the team here.”
The WSC Esports team will host a tournament for the community colleges around the area in February inside Ramsey Theater. WSC esports will make its way to Kansas State University for an in person match up with 20 other institutions. The team will also be attending a match at Minnesota State University-Mankato later in the season playing against a few schools from the NSIC conference. The season wraps up around early April.