Student esport: Stanford University team
The level of development of student cyber sports in the United States is truly admiring. Many educational institutions have their own cyber-sports teams, which regularly participate in inter-university leagues held by organizations such as TeSPA and CSL. We offer to get acquainted with student cyber sports of the USA a little closer, having read interview with the handler of cyber sports team of the university of Stanford.
On November 21 at Oracle Arena in the USA passed IEM Oakland tournament. Six League of Legends teams from all over the world fought fiercely for the prize fund and for entering the final part of the World Cup. But, in addition to the principled rivalry of real professionals, was on this tournament and one match which helped to defuse the atmosphere a little. This is a friendly game between Berkeley University and Stanford University teams. Two of these educational institutions are known for their constant rivalry in various sports, and electronic sports are now among them too.
There were no big prize sums at stake: the match between the students had no fundamental tournament value, but this game still received a very positive reaction from the audience. Fans supported amateur players with as much enthusiasm as could be seen from them and during professional matches. And the way student players laid out during matches was an excellent illustration of the fact that they like to play no less than professional players.
After graduating from IEM Oakland, the author of this interview (now he writes sometimes for csgobettings blog) contacted Stanford University ‘s cyber sports team to interview the guys. I wanted to know what was behind this team and their passion for esport. Questions were answered by Natalie Chan, senior curator of Stanford University ‘s esports team.
The gaming club has existed in Stanford for many years, but this year it has undergone significant changes: we have new leaders, as well as we have started to play a new game. We have students who love esport and want it at Stanford to be at the top level. The League of Legends team was formed from a pool of students who are interested in this game and know how to play well. The selection of participants was carried out on a competitive basis. At IEM Oakland, we were represented by a squad of active players from our team as well as graduates from our university who had the opportunity to play that weekend (that was Thanksgiving).
At the moment, our cyber sports club is called the Stanford Video Game Association. I am the club ‘s curator by the university leadership, whereas the student president of this association is Jason Lin. The history of the club in its current form began with the renaming of the previous association in the summer of 2016. The League of Legends team and other cyber-sports teams are affiliated with the club, but do not function under its auspices. I am the curator of our League of Legends and Overwatch teams. Our Overwatch team recently placed third at Corsair University Torunament, and our League of Legends squad featured a win over Berkeley University within IEM Oakland.
