JCHS grad part of new team

KOKOMO — Indiana University Kokomo has a new esports team.

One of its co-captains is a Jay County graduate.

In February, IU Kokomo announced it would be launching an esports team as a varsity sport.

“Really, it was an idea coming from our new chancellor,” explained coach Nick Liegey. “It’s one of those sports — we’re actually considered under athletics — that you don’t have the traditional travel as some other sports, so it can obviously be a real profit-maker as well as something that can really draw in a lot of recruits for the school.”

Esports, short for electronic sports, is a team-based video game competition. Several members from the group had previously been involved in the esports club, which continues to serve as an environment for casual gamers. One of those students is sophomore Gavin McCrosson, a 2022 graduate of Jay County High School.

“I had joined the club — I saw them at the activity fair my freshman year,” he explained. “And then, one day, Nick started asking people who wanted to compete … I messaged him saying I’d be interested, and it went on from there.”

Esports team members currently have the option of playing three video games competitively — “Overwatch 2,” “Rocket League” or “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” (Players are placed into squads for each game.) Liegey shared the possibility of adding other titles as interest grows and conference availability opens up.

“As trends change, we’ll switch out games for what students are really interested in competing in,” explained Liegey.

IU Kokomo’s team participates in the National Esports Collegiate Conference, which has more than 300 schools across America.

Unlike other sports, esports tournaments are typically hosted remotely. (Larger matches may be hosted in-person via local area network (LAN) communications.)

“We may be playing a school in California, we could be playing a school in Florida, it just kind of depends on the week,” Liegey said.

The Cougars had been playing remotely from their own homes utilizing Discord, an instant messaging and social platform regularly used by gamers. (The application ties into video game software, allowing users to play and chat with their friends in the same space online.) 

They planned to set up in the Student Activities and Events Center while waiting for construction to be finished on the esports arena, a new addition to IU Kokomo’s Kelley Student Center. (Plans are to have the space completed sometime in January.) Their arena will be outfitted with 18 computers for players, along with a coach’s computer, streaming room and various outlets and data ports for their equipment.

The team has been sharing its competitions online via Twitch, a live-streaming service, and planned to stream games on screens across campus.

As co-captain of the “Overwatch 2” squad, McCrosson plans out strategies and keeps his teammates in check with regular practice sessions at least two times a week.

“Most of us practice more than that,” he said. “It is a video game, you can hop on it at your leisure. It’s a lot different than like, let’s say baseball, where you want to go to a field or where you want to hit somewhere. Most of us, we can sit at home and play together.”

The Cougars’ first games started in September, with the playoffs wrapping up this month. 

McCrosson boasted in October about the “Overwatch 2” squad’s record, which ultimately came to 5-0 for the regular season.

“We’re definitely just going to keep steamrolling the competition like we are right now,” said McCrosson. “We have a pretty good group behind us, and we’re just going to keep plowing forward.”

According to the group’s schedule on IU Kokomo’s website, “Rocket League” players finished with 3-3 for the season and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” players were 2-3. In the NECC Navigator Division Great Lakes Conference playoffs, IU Kokomo’s “Overwatch 2” squad dominated Murray State University in the quarterfinals Nov. 16 with a 3-0 win and advanced past University of Missouri with a 4-2 win in the semifinals Nov. 30.

Their fall season is nearing a close — the “Overwatch 2” group was set to face off against Southern Illinois University in a championship match on Thursday. Still, the spring season is just around the corner.

Interest has quickly grown for the program, noted Liegey. Near the beginning of the season, the esports team boasted more than 20 players. Liegey hopes to bring the headcount to 40 in the next year.

A full-time business and computer science teacher at Western High School in Russiaville, Liegey served as his high school’s esports coach for a year before taking over as coach of IU Kokomo’s first esports team.

“This opportunity opened up, and it was like a dream come true, I totally wanted to be a part of it, be able to build a program and really see it through,” he said.