{"id":131218,"date":"2020-11-24T12:15:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T22:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=131218"},"modified":"2020-11-24T12:15:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T22:15:41","slug":"esports-team-scores-national-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/11\/24\/esports-team-scores-national-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <abbr title=\"Electronic sports\">Esports<\/abbr> team scores national recognition, special invite"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-esports-national-honor.jpg\" alt=\"cloud9 logo on a banner\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-131219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-esports-national-honor.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-esports-national-honor-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-esports-national-honor-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Recent success in a nationwide tournament has earned the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>\u2019s <abbr title=\"Electronic sports\">Esports<\/abbr> team a high national ranking and an invitation from a prominent organization.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <em>Overwatch<\/em> team is ranked <abbr title=\"Number\">No<\/abbr>. 25 among 271 North American colleges and universities by college gaming company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tespa.org\/\">Tespa<\/a> after wins over <abbr title=\"University of California\">UC<\/abbr> San Diego and Colorado State in the <abbr title=\"University of California Los Angeles\">UCLA<\/abbr> Summer Invitational <em>Overwatch<\/em> tournament in August 2020.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/01\/uh-esports-overwatch-tournament\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> <abbr>Esports<\/abbr> tournament performance impresses colleges nationwide<\/a>, September 1, 2020<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The performance also earned the team an invitation to participate in an inaugural college program with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloud9.gg\/\"><abbr title=\"Cloud 9\">Cloud9<\/abbr><\/a>, one of the largest professional <abbr title=\"electronic sports\">esports<\/abbr> organizations in North America. Students will engage with the organization through a series of events, including fireside chats, player development and tournaments; resume and professional development from <abbr>Cloud9<\/abbr> mentors; and internship opportunities. <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa was chosen alongside schools, such as <abbr>UC<\/abbr> Irvine, Boston University and the University of Texas at Arlington.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My hopes are that this is the beginning of a longer-term relationship with <abbr>Cloud9<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"U connect\">Uconnect<\/abbr> (<abbr>Cloud9<\/abbr> partner and an <abbr>esports<\/abbr> and gaming sponsorship marketplace), where <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students are given access to a growing network of students and young leaders from across the U.S. mainland who are working in the college and professional <abbr>esports<\/abbr> space,&rdquo; said <strong>Nyle Sky Kauweloa<\/strong>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/cis\/\">communication and information sciences<\/a> <abbr title=\"Doctor of Philosophy\">PhD<\/abbr> student and head of the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <abbr>Esports<\/abbr> Task Force in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialsciences.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Expanding <abbr>esports<\/abbr> presence<\/h2>\n<p>Kauweloa, a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s <abbr>Esports<\/abbr> program leader; and <strong>Kevin Nguyen<\/strong>, a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa communications graduate and full-time <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <abbr>Esports<\/abbr> program assistant, said the program currently fields teams for <em>Overwatch<\/em>, <em>League of Legends<\/em>, <em>Rainbow Six<\/em>, <em>Super Smash <abbr title=\"Brothers\">Bros<\/abbr><\/em>., and <em>VALORANT<\/em>, which recently defeated national powerhouse <abbr>UC<\/abbr> Irvine. Kauweloa also hopes to host a collegiate <abbr>esports<\/abbr> leadership conference in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> featuring major companies, such as <abbr>Cloud9<\/abbr>, Nvidia, Corsair, Twitch and Micro-Star International.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While I am happy that we are ranked so high, I will not be satisfied until we become the best collegiate program in the country,&rdquo; Nguyen said. &ldquo;I can recognize the immense progress that the university and program has [achieved] since Sky and I started three years ago, but I want to continue to improve the program to become as meaningful to students as possible.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Nguyen credited the program\u2019s success to its student leadership members who work tirelessly to make their teams as good as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Students interested in learning more about the program are encouraged to follow the team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UHEsport\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uhesports\/\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/NUCPXMA\">Discord<\/a> pages, or email uh.esports@hawaii.edu.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;By <em>Marc Arakaki<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The <em>Overwatch<\/em> team is ranked <abbr>No<\/abbr>. 25 among 271 North American colleges and universities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[301,661,1405,9],"class_list":["post-131218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-communications","tag-esports","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131225,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131218\/revisions\/131225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}