The ETSU eSports League of Legends team kicked off their season start on Jan. 22 with a 2-1 win against Florida Polytechnic University.
With the start of the season, the team has a lot of returning players and some new players as well.
Junior Nate Williams (Kingsport, Tennessee) just transferred to ETSU and has played collegiate eSports at both King University and Milligan University. Williams had an explosive first game, getting to show his new teammates what all he could do.
Returning team member, graduate student Aaron Hayes (Kingsport, Tennessee) tied for week one overall highest kill/death assist ratio (KDA) in the conference with a KDA of 78.
“Nate and Aaron had really good first weeks. It was good to get to showcase them because they are both playing roles that don’t necessarily get to have those big explosive score-lines,” said head coach Jeff Shell. “They are more supportive roles, so getting to see them come out week 1 and take over the games to kind of show everyone they are here to play.”
Communication is important to the game and team leaders when having to make rapid decisions as information comes from the players.
“We start to make our own language, so that when you hear this symbol, or hear this person say this word we have all sat down, agreed upon, rehearsed, and studied so that we know it means this very specific, hyper-focused thing just so that we can have more efficiency in our communication,” Shell said. “I think we do a pretty good job of it, but that’s something that we have to work on every week to improve it.”
The League of Legends team continues their season Jan. 29 against UNC-Chapel Hill. All games are hosted live in The Cave and on Twitch.tv at 4 p.m.
The Rocket League and Overwatch JV teams start their season on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.
