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ST. george – From treadmills, rock climbing walls, pools and weight racks, a different competitive scene has found a new home in Utah Tech’s massive Human Performance Center.
The club’s new room features four side-by-side, wide-screen TVs, a Nintendo Switch, an Xbox One and 12 powerful gaming computers designed by the university in partnership with Dell. Two multi-monitor PCs run the club’s online streaming platforms, which club members can join remotely.
Danny Finnegan, the club’s president and head of communications design, spoke about the club’s mission and how Utah Tech tackles the highly competitive esports scene. Video game players can earn millions of dollars a year..
“Game-wise, there’s so much depth in every new game that comes out,” Finnegan said. “Sports-wise, you can sink hundreds and thousands of hours and gain new experiences, meet new people and level your game.”
“A lot of our players are that unreachable audience, people who don’t see big events on campus, athletic events. They are like hermits, but here they can find a community that shares all their interests, and they can find school spirit with us.
Finnegan, who grew up playing video games like “Pokemon,” began competing in buy-in tournaments for “Super Smash Bros.” at age 16.
Finnegan said his first race was one to remember. They go to a small group of players at Game Haven in St. George, but don’t know the other players. The tournament was a double-elimination. Finnegan lost both of his matches in quick succession.
“Yeah, I got totally slapped, but I’ve also made some really long friends.”
Although “slapped” by the defeat, Finnegan continued to go to domestic tournaments, developing his game skills while analyzing his own play and other players’ matches, spotting mistakes that could have given him a big advantage. Finally, Finfine consistently won first place in competitions.
His success led him to organize the tournament itself and join Utah Tech’s esports team, where he coaches the “Super Smash Bros” players and leads the club.
An esports club has “open lab days” where any member can come to the club room and play a game of their choice. However, most of the club’s activity revolves around its six competitive gaming teams, one team per game: “Overwatch 2”, “Valorant”, “Call of Duty”, “Rocket League”, “Super Smash Bros: Ultimate” and “League of Legends”.
Each team has different positions on the team roster, generally one alternate “bench” player per team. Each group has tryouts at the beginning of the semester.
“We have established coaches and managers for each team that schedule them to have training sessions among the busy college students,” Finnegan explained. “We educate coaches on different strategies they can use to manage their teams and encourage them to explore the metagame and watch pro play.”
Similar to the sports world, Utah Tech sending coaches isolate their players in practice and games in video games to develop specific skills for each game. Coaches stress the importance of clear communication between players in order to adapt play to the competition in each game.
Teams follow as coaches go over past games and analyze team and opponent mistakes and strengths, much like a football coach reviewing past game film.
“We practice twice a week, three times a week. We normally don’t go through that because these are college students, especially, and we don’t want to create burnout,” Finnegan said.
Group exercises are based on a video game. “League of Legends,” for example, has an average match length of 30 to 40 minutes, making the experiences even longer.
Finnegan said Utah Tech sends scrimmages and competes with colleges like Utah Valley University and Southern Utah University for big tournaments, and Utah Tech esports hosts weekly tournaments for “Super Smash Bros” at Atwood Innovation Plaza.
Cash prizes can range from $20 to $1,000 depending on the size of the competition during the year.
While there are some comparisons between physical sports and esports, Finnegan likes to think of esports as his own entity. One strength sports have over many physical sports, he said, is accessibility.
Utah Tech eSports had about 200 members last semester, and about 600 people follow the club’s Instagram page and Discord server. Finnegan expects the club to continue to expand. Once the Student Union Building is completed on campus, the Esports Club will be relocated to further expand its existing membership space.
On Nov. 11, Finnegan said, Utah Tech will host an open game event with a Utah sponsor. Ken Garff Esports.
The event aims to give high school and college students an opportunity to play games, meet other players and learn more about competing in high-level esports.
Copyright Saint George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
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