SJSUCS Athletics

A few weeks ago, Spartan Esports became Mountain West Champions for League of Legends after a strong showing in Las Vegas against University of Nevada, Reno, and Boise State.  With the win came $5,000 in scholarship money and the top seed from our region going into the play-ins for the national championship.  While this win means a great deal to us, it is just another step on our journey.

What's Next for League of Legends
For the League of Legends team, the next step is grinding scrimmages and other practice for the national play-ins.  This play-in tournament is essentially a qualifier for the national championship tournament. We will be competing from April 9 to April 22 for one of the final spots in the national championship.
 Our goal, as with any team, is to progress as far as possible in the tournament and to hopefully become national champions. Should we prevail in the play-ins, we will then participate in a live eight-school playoffs live in Los Angeles from June 7-10 against the best schools in the country.

What's Next for Spartan Esports
While our players and coaches are working hard in-game, our officers and other staff are working hard on progressing esports on campus.  Our first step was to look at our goals and how we can build off of what we consider a very successful inaugural year.  With solid teams in Overwatch, Counter Strike, and League of Legends, as well as a passionate team of support staff, we have a great foundation for a promising organization.

We've decided that to take our performance and organization to the next step, we need  to achieve or attain a few major milestones.  We hope to have a full-time coordinator of Esports at San José State to coordinate operations, provide management and direction, and guide us into the future.  Another goal is to offer esports scholarships both to support the players and to help San Jose State recruit the best players possible (Donate HERE).

We are also working toward establishing an on-campus esports facility.  This would provide opportunities for players to practice and compete to the best of their abilities, removing limitations like internet issues in the dorms or spectator delays from coaches having to watch practice from home.  This facility would welcome casual and competitive gamers alike, providing computers and consoles for students and faculty to play on and enjoy, not just to serve as a practice facility for the teams.

We also plan to recruit teams for new esports such as Rocket League and Rainbow Six, to provide support for esports athletes in other games to compete at the highest level.  Lastly, we hope to improve on our current performance and have at least one team highly recognized as a nationally dominant team.

Overall, our goals are to gain more support from the school and prove ourselves worthy of the support we've already been given, play our hardest, and attain the same resources our friends at schools like UC Berkeley, Boise State, and UC Irvine.  Not only do we want to be the best and represent San José State, we want to show our fellow Spartans why we are so passionate about what we do.