JOHNSON CITY – (Nov. 4, 2021) Two varsity esports teams at East Tennessee State University competing this fall have earned spots in the Southeast Conference 1 tournament for the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Starleague, which is North America’s largest collegiate esports league comprised of over 14,500 students from 600 institutions of higher education.
ETSU’s Overwatch® and Rocket League® teams begin competition Monday, Nov. 8.
Overwatch® finished its Southeast Conference 1 season 9-2 and will take on Shenandoah University in the first round of competition. This is the Overwatch® team’s second bid for a championship title having earned a spot in the NACE playoffs last year. The seven-member team made it to the final 16 last year and also competed in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) playoffs, finishing in the division’s top 8.
“Across the varsity division, we saw a lot of teams make big moves to improve their rosters from last year,” said ETSU Head Coach Jeff Shell. “The bar has been raised in the level of Overwatch competition, and I could not be more proud of ETSU’s team for the diligence in preparing for this season.”
Rocket League® made its debut at ETSU this year and is also competing in the Southeast Conference 1 tournament. The team finished 7-2 in its inaugural year and will compete against the University of Tulsa next Monday.
“As we entered the professional competition arena, we quickly saw how challenging Rocket League® had become,” Shell said. “In fact, there are about 160 teams across the nation in 16 conferences who have Rocket League® teams. ETSU has a relatively young team, yet we earned a spot in the tournament competition during our first year. Our students are very committed and I am very pleased with all they did this fall.”
Both Overwatch® and Rocket League® competitions will streamed on twitch.tv/etsuesports. Matches will begin at 7 p.m. with Rocket League® taking the stage, followed by Overwatch® at 8 p.m., with live viewing for both matches available in the esports area in the D.P. Culp Student Center Cave.
###