
With the rising popularity of esports, colleges and universities nationwide are picking up on the esports club trend where gamers not only compete against each other, but against other college teams as well. The University of Âé¶¹´«Ã½ at ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ team is gaining recognition in the largest collegiate league.
Leading the charge in the arena of esports at UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ is Nyle Sky Kauweloa, a graduate assistant at the in the . Kauweloa, along with Kevin Nguyen, a UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ communications graduate, who now works full time as UH¡¯s esports program assistant. UH esports runs 5 teams across 2 games which are Overwatch and League.
The UH collegiate esports team, which is competing in the 2019 League of Legends Collegiate Starleague (CSL) tournament, recently received honorable mention in the CSL rankings and was . The other teams are from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), University of New Mexico and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
“It’s really amazing given that this is our first time competing¡ªever in an organized tournament, and we are mentioned along with UCI,” said Kauweloa.
Kauweloa also teaches a course, Esports and Society, the first of its kind at UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹. The course covers the rising popularity and significance of the growing esports industry.
The University of New Mexico and UH will go head-to-head on January 18, 2020, competing in the next round of the tournament. From there, the top teams from each division will find out on February 8, 2020, who they will move on to play on the bracket stage.
Interested students can follow the team¡¯s and , or email uh.esports@hawaii.edu.
More on Collegiate Starleague
Collegiate Starleague is the world¡¯s first collegiate gaming organization. The league has grown to more than 1,800 aggregate universities and 55,000 cumulative active players.
CSL runs leagues across multiple titles and platforms and has awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships to deserving college gamers.
