Es­ports Hosts First In-Per­son Com­pe­ti­tion

MISHAWAKA—De­spite launch­ing the es­ports pro­gram in Sep­tem­ber, the team com­pleted its in­au­gural sea­son in the fall with­out com­pet­ing in an in-per­son event. Most of their events are nor­mally held ei­ther here on cam­pus, or at their home fa­cil­ity at the Ben­dix Arena in South Bend. On Sat­ur­day, March 13, the team was ex­cited to host Musk­ingum Uni­ver­sity at the Ben­dix Arena. 

“The play­ers are re­ally look­ing for­ward to it,” said Dan Wort, head coach of the es­ports pro­gram. “It's the first time we will com­pete in per­son against an­other team, so it will be ex­cit­ing.  The main ad­just­ment has been to the sched­ule.  Nor­mally our teams play in the morn­ing, but this match will be in the af­ter­noon, so that adds a lit­tle bit to how they need to pre­pare.” 

The Over­watch, Rocket League and League of Leg­ends teams for Bethel and Musk­ingum all com­peted at the Ben­dix Arena. The Rocket League team, how­ever, had an­other com­pe­ti­tion the same morn­ing fol­low­ing the typ­i­cal vir­tual for­mat, re­sult­ing in a dou­ble-header for them that day.  

“They will play in the morn­ing against Mount Union from our fa­cil­ity at Bethel,” Wort said. “They have had dou­ble head­ers al­ready this sea­son so it's pretty sim­ple.  Then they will have plenty of time be­tween matches to go over to Ben­dix and get ready.” 

Their match against Mount Union be­gan at 10:30 a.m. and their match at Ben­dix be­gan at 2 p.m. The biggest thing for this pro­gram in their first year is ex­po­sure, and with in-per­son events be­ing im­ple­mented into the es­ports sched­ule, it can only mean good things for the pro­gram. 

“It means every­thing,” Wort said. “As [COVID-19] re­stric­tions lessen, we an­tic­i­pate host­ing sev­eral col­le­giate es­ports events, which will have the ad­di­tional ben­e­fit of pro­mot­ing our pro­gram and Bethel Uni­ver­sity as a whole.” 

Rocket League team lost their first match of the day 3-0 verse Mount Union and then won 3-0 verse Musk­ingum. Over­watch forced a five-game se­ries but ul­ti­mately lost 3-2 and League of Leg­ends fell 2-1. For more in­for­ma­tion on the Bethel es­ports team visit www.bupi­lots.com.