E-sports is coming this week to campus at Terra State Community College, under the direction of the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association, according to Mike Daigneault.
Daigneault, who runs the college’s e-sports program with assistant coach Adam Dirnberg, said Terra’s e-sports was originally conceptualized on a club-oriented basis, like many two- and four-year colleges in the area. The program, however, will hold competitions as a team, under a larger athletic governing body, he said.
“We’ll be under the NJCAA,” Daigneault said, noting that the sanctioning body is separate from the NCAA.
Daigneault, who teaches computer information systems at Terra State, said the e-sports program will be conducted under a set body of rules under the association, not those determined by individual clubs. Though the league has been around for the past five years, the coach said, there are no schools in the region for Terra to compete against, so they automatically find themselves at a higher level of challenge.
“We’re going into nationals right away,” he said.
Qualifier to be held in September
Terra’s program will hold a qualifying event Sept. 3, and new video games have been included for the team’s competition. Along with offerings such as “Valorant,” “Overwatch” and “Rocket League,” the program has added Nintendo games “Smash Bros” and “Mario Cart.”
In terms of popularity, said Daigneault, the NJCCA recently anticipated approximate viewership of their competitions at 200,000, but were amazed to find spectatorship in the millions. Interest in Terra’s program has been intense, he said, gathering talent from all over the region, including students who otherwise would have attended other colleges. Recruiting, therefore, has been easy.
“I’m having students come and find me, Daigneault said.” I don’t have to go find them.”
Superior systems and facility
Another reason for the Terra team’s popularity is their recent establishment of a gaming room on the third floor of the campus’ Building B, with 27-inch monitors and a direct fiber trunk line that is entirely separate from the college’s other computer systems. The system, Daigneault said, is three to four times faster than the Tiffin University e-sports club’s system. He added that he met representatives from the Ohio State and Akron universities at a recent conference who expressed envy about Terra’s setup.
“They were jealous that we had a direct fiber link,” he said.
The coach said he was pleased that the e-sports program he began simply to offer students something to do outside of the traditional extracurricular activities has blossomed into what it is.
Though coaching individual competitors in individual video games presents challenges similar to individual track and field events, Daigneault said the work is satisfying. He also credited much of the program’s success to support of the college’s leadership, particularly Terra President Ron Schumacher.
“This guy is phenomenal,” he said.
mmagnuson@gannett.com
