FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) — Just last month, Indiana Tech officially moved its Esports program from student life to an official athletic sport for the 2021-2022 school year.
This is the 27th athletic sport at Indiana Tech which is the only coed sport on campus.
“We’re pumped. This is a great opportunity for us and for many of us this is the dream. You grow up in middle school like, I just want to play for a school so this is awesome for us,” Rocket League Captain Nate Wertz said.
He says he’s passionate about Esports because it’s more of a free schedule, less room for injury and exercises your brain.
“It’s a way to be super competitive on your own time,” he said. “I really enjoy that. I can be competitive just like a football team but at 10 p.m. on a Sunday. You really can’t do that in football.”
The same feeling goes for Overwatch captain Christian Goins and loves that Esports is ever evolving.
“We have just as much of a viewer base if not more in some scenario’s,” Goins said. “I think that’s really where it comes from is the recognition of how far we come.”
The Esports program has been around since 2016 on Indiana Tech’s campus and they will be a part of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, which added esports as a championship sport for 2021-2022.
The program offers Hearthstone, League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League.
“It’s real, this is a real thing, you are just as valid as a football team, as a basketball team. You’re competing at such a high level that other people can’t even imagine,” Head Coach Jordan Cunningham said.
He says Esports has exploded in recent years especially because of the pandemic.
“They discovered a new passion because we were all still stuck at home. What’s the easiest thing to do while you’re at home, watch Netflix and play some video games,” Cunningham said. “That’s why its exploding. That’s why it’s so important for Indiana Tech to give it the validation and respect the program deserves and earned.”
He told Fort Wayne’s NBC News they’re hoping to add more space for players to join and to add consoles if students don’t have access to computers.
Cunningham says that will help them recruit more players and offer more scholarships.
