April 5, 2023

This is the second of a five-part series on Columbus State's esports program.

Now acknowledged as an official collegiate team sport, esports widely falls under the nation's various athletics conferences. That means that Columbus State University’s esports teams and team members are governed by the Peach Belt Conference—just as its 13 NCAA Division II sports teams are. That also means the Cougars' rivals on the competitive courts and fields are the same ones esports competitors face off against in the online gaming arena.

“Esports is weird,” CSU esports coach Dr. Sharon Welburn (pictured) admitted when describing its “intermingling” between the Athletics and Student Affairs worlds at Columbus State. “As a Student Affairs program, we're a group of people with a common interest in gaming and having fun. But, we want to be highly competitive, capture first place, and win scholarships and prize money. So, in that sense, we're more like CSU's other sports teams.”

CSU's athletics teams are known for their championship-caliber play—and its esports team is equally accustomed to success. That's especially true when the team is deep with returning starters.

Esports has both a fall season (September through October) and a spring season (February through March) each academic year. Most competitions occur online but are occasionally live-streamed at on-campus or community locations so friends and fans can show their support and live the action in real time.

And like each of CSU's athletics teams, esports has its own Peach Belt Conference rivals. That rivalry is further fostered through the Georgia Esports League, of which CSU is a member and competes against technical, public and private colleges and universities in the state.

“I would consider Kennesaw State University to be our rival, as we make jokes with them and generally have a close relationship to them,” said Evan McAbee, a junior from Columbus pursuing a degree in computer science with a focus on games programming. “It's more like competing against good friends than just a random school.”

Other current and alumni team members agreed that the question of a school rival depended on the game or the season.

“For League of Legends, I would say that our rival is USC Aiken,” Jess Davis (pictured), a Columbus native, founding League of Legends team member, former captain and a 2022 CSU biology graduate, said. “The first time we played them, they were surprised to see a female player on the team and underestimated my abilities. My teammates and I did not appreciate the trash talk and took it personally. That definitely fueled the rivalry, and that just continued on.”

“That depends on the year, and I think it even depends on the sport,” said Forsyth, Georgia, native and 2019 mathematics alumnus Daniel Collins when trying to narrow down CSU's ultimate opponent. “The best rival is the team you are just about even with—and when you go head to head, it's a great game.”

Getting the scoop on your rivals

Sizing up the competition for esports teams can be as lucrative as their on-field and on-court counterparts. Just like other sports, esports teams benefit from their own scouting report websites and “watch film” on their opponents—which is widely available as esports teams use Twitch, YouTube and other livestreaming and video services as a way of expanding their online reach. 

The game developer Riot even maintains its own website with esports team rosters—giving teams access to player stats around which they can devise strategies around specific competitors and games.

“The first thing that I do is check out the school's esports website and see what they have accomplished recently,” Beauford, South Carolina, native and senior majoring in computer science Jarel Hearst (known to his teammates and rivals alike as “Glitch”; pictured) explained. “Then I check out each individual player, see what they have going on, the mental space that they are in, to see how we can use that to our advantage.”

“We'd visit websites where players' recent games could be viewed and use those to look at trends in their data—similar to watching other teams' film in basketball or football,” Collins recalled. “So, we'd watch their games and look at trends in their picks, playstyle and performance and see how our strong points can exploit their weaknesses.”

Riot goes a step further by vetting players and teams against its sportsmanship and etiquette standards—and even singling out players for violating those or for displaying “toxic” behaviors during their game play. Its sportsmanship check weeds out players based on toxic behaviors including slurs, hate or offensive speech, verbal abuse and sustained hostility toward another player.

“I would define 'toxic game behavior' as anything that would make someone stop and think, 'hey, that's not cool' or distracts from good sportsmanship and the ability to make relationships with other teams,” McAbee (pictured) said.

“Players deemed too toxic usually cannot compete and are removed from rosters. However, sometimes players are just put on probation if the offense wasn't that severe,” Welburn explained.

For more information about CSU's esports programs and points of contact, visit the team's website or follow the team on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Read other articles in this series:

• Part 1: MORE THAN A GAME: esports cultivates competition, confidence for student-gamers
• Part 2: ESPORTS IS 'WEIRD': how it mirrors, differs from traditional college sports
• Part 3: AN EXPANDING SPORT: esports' growth gives competitors room to develop professional, life skills
• Part 4: A COMMUNITY WITHIN A COMMUNITY: esports teams provide players sense of family
• Part 5: A BRIGHT FUTURE: opportunities abound for esports' growth at CSU, nationally

Media contact:
Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729, mtullier@columbusstate.edu