Coach Jeff Shell is preparing the ETSU Esports team to compete in the Tri-Cities Slam tournament to highlight players from regional schools.

The tournament will be held on April 1 in conjunction with the opening day of 2023 ETSU-Con. Shell said that the tournament is a continuation of one held during last year’s ETSU-Con, which Shell hopes to evolve into a semesterly or annual tournament.

“We want to invite regional schools and showcase regional talent in a way for us to get together and compete against each other,” said Shell. “Due to the online nature of Esports, we have opportunities to compete with lots of schools around the country, but rarely do we get opportunities to play against schools 30 minutes down the road from us.”

Shell said that this year’s tournament is going to be smaller, with teams from King University and Northeast State Community College participating. The three main games being played will be “Overwatch II,” “Rocket League” and “Valorant.”

The tournament will begin livestreaming at 8 a.m., and it will go all-day in coordination with ETSU-Con. The Esports team will be playing from the stage in The Cave where patrons can watch instead of over livestream.

“Since there’s three schools competing, we are going to do a simple round-robin group stage with everyone,” said Shell. “Whoever comes out on top will take first place for the title, and we also have an overall sweepstakes trophy which we will use for the next five to six years.”

The sweepstakes trophy will reside at the recipient’s school for the following year, then be entered back into the tournament for another player to claim. Shell said that they hope for a chance to compete once to twice per year to celebrate Esports in east and middle Tennessee.

The tournament will include schools like the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Appalachian State University and Emory and Henry College.

“These schools compete in a lot of national Esports league. They just don’t have what we have here, which is the full university support, the scholarships, the dedicated facilities, things like that,” said Shell. “Even though some of these schools are not east Tennessee, we still have a close relationship with these schools which makes it special for them to come.”

“Overwatch II” will be the first title played in the tournament followed by “Rocket League.” A major portion of the tournament will be focused on “Valorant.” Shell said that many schools are focusing on “Valorant” as a major title in the Esports league.

He shared that this is a great opportunity to show what the Esports team can bring to the title in the future.

The Tri-Cities Slam tournament is being presented by ETSU Online and is sponsored by Mulligan’s Gaming Pub and is in coordination with ETSU-Con.

For more information, please visit etsu.edu/esports or visit their Instagram @etsuesports. To watch the tournament’s livestream, please visit twitch.tv/etsuesports.

(Contributed/ETSU Esports Twitter)