ROCKFORD – Students are back on campus at Rockford University for the fall semester and keyboards are clicking all over campus. In the Burpee Center, the clicking sound gets louder as the students work hard in the Esports Lab.
Esports Director Tanner Elliott took over the program in July 2023, having been one of the program’s first students when it began in 2019. Before the program finally got started five years ago, it had to get support from the university.
“With esports, people don’t know what it is, they just assume it’s people playing video games, but it’s a lot more than that,” Elliott said. “It’s a chance to develop your personal skills and a chance to make friends and build a team.”
In the current eSports program, around 25 students play one of the three games that the program focuses on. Overwatch is a 5-5 fast-paced tactics game, Valorant, one of the fastest growing esports games, and Rainbow Six Siege. All games require patience and mindfulness, just like a traditional sport.
“It’s absolutely not a traditional sport, but the mechanics, the movement and the mechanisms are still there, in the way your hands and your body work,” senior Rodolfo Vazquez said. “We’re going to have moments where we really have to adjust to playing a game and not training.”
When the students are back in the classroom, even the veterans of the group will find it rewarding to get their momentum back on track.
“It was quite difficult to juggle everything I do on campus,” said Senior Domenic Bayce. “It’s been really great to be able to grow with the team and continue to make good friends and socialize.”
The Regents Esports program is all about community.
“Esports means being part of something bigger, it means being part of a community that is much larger than myself, much larger than the local region, the state region, even the national region,” said Rodolfo Vazquez . “We’ve had the opportunity to speak, compete, play and meet people from across the country, sometimes outside of the country, both in person and online.”
Esports Director Tanner Elliott hopes to expand the lineup from PC games to consoles. Rocket League and Super Smash Bros are the next two games that could be added by Spring Term. The program aspires to become a dominant force throughout the Midwest.
“Hopefully within the next four years we can establish ourselves as the dominant esports program in the Midwest,” said Elliott. “I’d love to see these guys now have the opportunity to travel and have a full esports experience.”
Next week all Rockford University students can try to be on the team. Valorant test matches will take place on Monday, Rainbow Six Siege on Tuesday and Overwatch on Wednesday. The trial sessions take place in the esports lab on the first floor of the Burpee Center.
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