Esports are a fairly new trend on college campuses with the first teams popping up around 2009. Since then, hundreds of universities across the nation have Esports teams, clubs, and programs. The Christopher Newport University Esports team is a club sport that was established last spring and has been competing against other schools in mostly Valorant and League of Legends tournaments. However, they have also competed in Overwatch and Rocket League tournaments.
While their club is still growing, CNU Esports has been resilient, successful, and hopes to expand in order to be well known both on campus and in the college Esports world. The club recently defeated Old Dominion in the Southern Conference for League of Legends and placed second in their division (but were unable to make the playoffs due to reasons out of their control). They have also competed against Texas A&M, which has a notable Esports program.
The last word anyone would use to describe the college Esports world is “effortless”, there is a type of intensity and competitiveness to it that is almost indescribable. Jackson Smith is the Esports Club’s Treasurer, Game Head, and Captain for the Esports Club’s League of Legends Team. Smith argued that Esports should be labeled as a sport due to the intense competitive nature. When describing the competitive nature of the college esports scene, Smith does not mince words.
“I’ve seen people rage, it actively ruins friendships, the competitive nature makes up for it not being ‘physical’..it’s extremely competitive, especially when things like scholarship money is on the line,” Smith said.
CNU Esports has weathered some hardships since their founding. Smith says that some of it revolves around the fact that they are new and that CNU is behind on investing into an Esports program when being compared to ODU and Radford.
“The problem is no one knows we exist and nobody’s talking about it.” Smith said. There also is the factor of the video game world itself updating games like Overwatch and making it more difficult for gamers in general.
When asked what CNU Esports hopes to accomplish in the future, Smith hopes to see it go from being a club to a team recognized by the Athletic Department. This would include merchandise, a wider variety of games, sponsorships, and more investment from CNU into the expanded presence of Esports on campus. Regardless of how someone may feel about Esports being classified as a sport, they are expanding and are worth investing in.
For more information, follow their Instagram, Twitch, and X pages @cnuesports and join their Discord server.
