The esports program’s Rocket League team will kick off the university’s inaugural year in conference play at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 with a match against Schreiner University.
Student athletes will compete in the remote matches from Concordia’s new state-of-the-art gaming arena on campus. Spectators can watch this season’s matches either from the lounge area in the arena or through the streaming platform Twitch, according to the university’s news release. Concordia’s esports team can be seen at www.twitch.tv/ctxesports.
All of the university’s existing esports teams—for "Rocket League," "League of Legends," "Overwatch" and "Super Smash Brothers Ultimate"—will compete in SCAC play this year. Concordia esports coach Marc Valdoria in October told Community Impact Newspaper the esports program is likely to expand its number of teams to include more games in the coming years.
Conference play will match Concordia’s esports teams against seven other universities in the SCAC. Six of the teams in the SCAC are located in Texas, with Colorado College and Johnson and Wales University based out of Colorado.
“We’re excited to build and establish local rivalries with other universities who also share the same passion in esports,” Valdoria said in the news release.
The SCAC is entering its second year of esports competition. In the news release, SCAC Commissioner Dwayne Hanberry said the league is likely to grow to 16 schools over time and add divisional play.
According to the university, the conference season will end with a live showdown event at Schreiner University, based in Kerrville, on March 27-28.
Hanberry said in the university's press release that the event will bring in 150 student athletes from the conference to compete this year. The "Rocket League," "Overwatch" and "Super Smash Brothers Ultimate" matches will be held entirely at the event with esports students providing commentary for spectators watching on the stream.
Concordia launched its esports program in August 2019 with an esports arena made up of 13 professional-level gaming stations and audio-visual production equipment. In the 2019 fall semester, Valdoria told Community Impact Newspaper the esports program had 10 student athletes on scholarships and a total of 30 students playing on teams.
