Esports is preparing for the fall 2023 semester with the teams and games we all know and love.
“iRacing” athlete freshman Matthew Burton is returning after competing in his first-ever season this past spring.
“He came to us in December with not a whole lot of experience, and now that he has that experience, I’m super excited for what that means for us long term as he starts to develop more,” said Jeff Shell, ETSU Esports head coach. “He’s had a really good first semester. I’m excited to see him improve and grow. If he’s doing this well six months into it, I’m only going to be surprised by how well he’s doing this time next year.”
Burton will work on the road to a pro event over the summer, attempting to qualify against other people for the Professional “iRacing” Series.
“We’ve seen a lot of support for ‘iRacing’ so far, so we want to continue to grow it and see where that leads us,” said Shell.
“Overwatch,” “Rocket League” and “Super Smash Bros.” will also return in the fall and compete year-round.
“Super Smash Bros.” started this past spring after partnering with the respective club on campus to give them opportunities to compete.
“It was a pretty successful exploration of that for us this year,” Shell said. “The ‘Smash’ team that we brought to the competition ended 17th overall nationally in their first year. We are super excited to bring that back next year and grow and support the smash club on campus.”
Shell was accepted into a prestigious course with information to help assist the teams in their development and engagement.
“The biggest and most impactful changes that I’m going to see from the program immediately coming into next year is around how we are monitoring player’s progress, taking additional statistics from games that we were not looking at and comparing those to students’ individual health trends, sleep patterns and more,” shared Shell.
For the incoming season, competitions will kick off on Sept. 4. Mondays will host “Rocket League,” Tuesdays will host “Overwatch,” “Super Smash Bros.” will be on Thursdays and “iRacing” will happen Tuesdays and Thursdays.
