Try @ TXST

Giselle:
Hi everybody. My name's Giselle and I'm the Digital Marketing Strategist here at Texas State. You're listening to Try at Texas State. And today, we're talking to the Texas State eSports team. You can find the gamers in the eSports arena on the lower floor of LBJ where Boko's Lair used to be. When I walk into the arena, it's decked out in high-end gaming chairs and PCs, with snacks and water at the front of the room. I'm greeted by two very influential members of the Texas State eSports team.

Enrique:
So my name is Enrique De La Torre. I am a graduate student here in the Texas State history program. I am the President of Texas State eSports.

Ray:
My name is Raymond Rodriguez. I'm a marketing major. This is my sophomore year. And I am the Smash captain and coordinator, and I'm here basically for the Smash Bros. team.

Giselle:
Can you guys describe for me what eSports is like I'm five years old?

Ray:
Basically, eSports is competitive gaming. It's for anyone who wants to play video games and anyone who thinks of video games as kind of a team sport or an individual sport, for them to shine and be kind of professionals in their own thing.

Giselle:
Enrique, how did you get involved in eSports? Give me the rundown from start to finish.

Enrique:
I started playing video games, I think at probably five or six years old. And my first game, I believe was Pokemon Platinum. I really enjoyed playing that. I got really addicted to it. But I'd say probably a game that's more competitive, Call of Duty Black Ops and Black Ops 2, very different games from what I play now, but it was just sort of my first taste of being competitive. And I'd say that I really got involved into eSports when I found League of Legends. It is, I think, the biggest eSport game in the entire world, if I'm not mistaken. It's a massive 5v5 game. It's a MOBA game. And pretty much, I became really good at that game, probably like top half percent of players in North America. So whenever I came to Texas State, I saw they had a team for that, and that was pretty much what started it all.

Giselle:
So Ray, can you tell me how you started?

Ray:
So I actually also started kind of playing Pokemon. My parents used to own a business and they were approached by this group of gamers, and they would hold competitive tournaments there. And that's where I kind of became introduced to the competitive scene, because I thought it was just a hobby of mine, just playing games for fun. And then, I played Pokemon competitively. And then, I shifted games over to Smash Bros., because people would also play Smash Bros. there. And I really focused on Smash Bros. and I've been playing there for around six years, I'd want to say, Smash Bros. competitively. And then, I joined the team at Texas State.

Giselle:
We actually went to a Smash Bros. tournament a couple of weeks back. My interns dived in and tried to play against the regulars and various team members that night in George's. The energy was electric, everybody was hyping each other up, oohs and ahs whenever a good play was made. None of my interns had ever played Smash in their lives, but they left exhilarated and wanting to come back to try again and win.

Interns:
He was dancing. He was dancing. Here I am, crown me off, I just won my first time. My first time-

Giselle:
I know you guys keep talking about the different games that you play, but at Texas State in general, what kind of games do you all play?

Enrique:
So we got Apex, CS:GO, which is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, we have Call of Duty, the most up-to-date Call of Duty, I believe is Modern Warfare 2, we have Overwatch, we have a game called Omega Strikers, which is a relatively new game, we have League of Legends, we had Halo, no longer have Halo, we got Smash Bros., like he said, we have SMITE, we have Rainbow Six Siege, we have Rocket League, and we have VALORANT. I think those are all the games we have currently. It's about 10 games right now.

Giselle:
ESports is a lot like an actual sport then. So how does it compare to a physical sport like football?

Ray:
Obviously, they're not as physical. I'm not going to the weight room every day to play Smash, but the mental aspects are just totally super similar. For me, I think playing Smash Bros. competitively helped me out too when I play baseball because it kind of gave me the discipline and the awareness whenever I'm going up to the plate. It helps me not get nervous or help not really fold under the pressure. And it really helps you develop those skills to be, I don't know, not as nervous, not as jumpy. It teaches you discipline, and I think it's really important.

Giselle:
Yeah. I remember when I was here, you were telling me it's a very mental, intense sport, so that really interested me because I've never been around video games. I had played like DS, the dog game, I think, you have to take care of a dog.
What is the culture like in eSports?

Enrique:
It's pretty welcoming. There's so many different types of people here at eSports, obviously, because we don't separate by anything. I know a lot of sports, not particularly by choice, they have a men's league and a women's league, but we have lots of girls and women on our teams, we have them in our officers. I am a Hispanic male, I've been playing on our eSports team for four years in a row, I've always been on the team. So we just have a wide variety of people. And I don't know, I think it's just we have a lot of fun. Right. I think people might be confused that we're super try hard, we're super into getting better and trying to win and everything like that, but we also have a lot of fun. So I think that's one thing that I want people to understand.

Giselle:
That kind of leads into my next question. What's the biggest misconception of eSports?

Ray:
I think that it shouldn't be considered a sport. I've talked about this before in a couple essays that I've written for classes. I think even though it's not as physically intensive, I do think the mental aspect is crazy in that it takes a special type of person, I think, able to hone their craft, able to be able to succeed in something at a professional level, I think is something that's exclusive to sports in general. And being able to compete in something, even if it's a video game, is really important. And I think it's something that even if I'm not tearing my ACL or something, I think it's something that should be considered in a league of its own with other games like chess or something like that.

Giselle:
Do you agree with Ray?

Enrique:
Yeah, I mean, all of that, and of course, like I was saying earlier, I think that a lot of people, at least in my experience when I talk to incoming freshman students, is that you have to be the very best at your game to get into eSports, which is just not true. It's just like any game, you can improve over time. It's like that way with sports.

Ray:
That's a good point too, because a lot of people are discouraged when they hear eSports because it's professional, you think of other sports like baseball, football, there's a lot of different leagues besides the pro level. You can play sports at any level, and same with eSports. You can not even like play the game and still show up to events and still learn and want to get good.

Giselle:
What is something that you guys know about eSports? It doesn't even have to be about the game in general, it could be about the people, the community that most people don't know about it.

Enrique:
One thing is that there's actually a lot of money to be made. League of Legends in particular, like I mentioned, it's one of the bigger eSports, some of the very best players, they get multimillion dollar contracts. And I've heard of players being offered $30 million contracts to come play for teams. So there can be a lot of money involved, really serious money.

Giselle:
As a Texas State student, if you're talking to a random kid on the Quad, how would you explain that Texas State eSports would benefit you in college?

Ray:
I think opportunities is huge with eSports. There's a lot of people that play games, it's a very common hobby, and a lot of them play competitively too, whether it be not as hardcore as us. And you can meet so many different people, you can talk to so many different people from backgrounds, experiences, opportunities. It's, honestly, a really good way of networking if you're not really into frat life or something like that.

Enrique:
I'm also a believer that if you want to make a bunch of friends at college that you should join a club that interests you and that have people that have the same interests as you. I think that's the best way to make friends. That's also a big reason why I joined eSports, it was like I didn't know anybody in town, I was completely new, so I was like, yeah, I just want to make some friends, so I'll join eSports.

Giselle:
Yeah, and now you're the president. So from that, what's the biggest lesson that this sport has taught you?

Ray:
Honestly, not to be too hard on myself.

Giselle:
In what sense?

Ray:
Just the sense that if I'm hard on myself, I won't really achieve the goals I want to, or I won't really make good friends, if I'm hard on myself or think I'm not that good or anything. I think it definitely teaches you a lot of personable skills. It teaches you, you can't win every time. It teaches you how to lose. Teaches you, I mean, how to keep going as a person, I think. And it's super important. And skills that you won't really get from not doing sports or just other competitions.

Enrique:
So I'd say probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned in eSports is learning how to be an adult really. Because when you join eSports and if you get into a team, it can be really... I don't know how to explain it, but a lot happens really fast basically. So I probably wasn't the best teammate when I was a 17-year-old freshman coming in. I had a lot to learn. I probably wasn't the nicest guy, but as I kept playing, as I kept growing older, then I feel like I'm much nicer now, I'm very welcoming, I'm a better teammate, things like that. Yeah.

Giselle:
What is your favorite memory since being here as an eSports member? Do either of you have one at Texas State so far?

Ray:
Yeah. This fall, we hosted an invitational for Smash Bros.. I think we had over 20 teams of colleges, different colleges. I think it was 10 different colleges, 20 teams. And it was super fun. We had over a hundred people here in George's. It was super loud, the venue was super excited. The energy was insane. We had food for everyone. It was so much fun. And our grand finals ended up being A&M versus UT, so we got to see the classic rivalry too. So it was awesome.

Enrique:
I think my favorite event is something similar. So actually, a year ago now at this point, spring 2022, my League of Legends team, we won the Southeast Championship. So we won that out of probably like 50, 60 different universities across the Southeast. We won that and we went to Nationals and we placed top 10 across United States and Canada. So that was just a wild thing, especially the way we did it, because when we got to playoffs, we were ranked as the sixth seed and we had to play the third seed, we had to play the second seed, and we had to play the first seed, and we beat all of them to win the Championship. So it was just like a crazy thing.

Giselle:
What advice would you give to someone who's trying to get into eSports? Maybe they've never played before.

Enrique:
I mean, if you've never played before, but you're interested in eSports, as I mentioned earlier, there's plenty of other stuff to do other than just gaming. We have opportunities for graphic design, for social media management, for casting our games, things like that. So if more of that sort of production side of things interests you, then I would say there's some opportunities for that. But if you want to play games, I'm sure there's a lot of people hitting the Discord who would not mind helping you out, learn some games. We have new players all the time, and we have no problem teaching them how to play.

Ray:
My biggest advice, if you want to get good at a game and play a game, join the team, just play it. It sounds redundant, but if you just put the time in, put the work in, then I think you can be on varsity as a freshman, I was. So just work for it and then, you'll get it.

Giselle:
Lastly, how can they find you? How can they get involved? How can they get started in eSports with you all?

Enrique:
All of our socials is just @TXSTeSports, it's everything. That's our Twitch, that's our Twitter, it's our Instagram, and it's our Discord. It's just TXSTeSports.

Giselle:
Perfect. Guys, thank you.

Ray:
Thank you. Yeah.

Giselle:
A very special thank you to the Texas State eSports team for sharing their expertise with our listeners. You inspired me to dig up my old DS and try my hand at gaming again. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Try at Texas State Podcast. Make sure to tune in next time to learn more about something else you can try on campus at Texas State. And remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at TXST.
This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the hosts and guests not of Texas State University.
Again, I'm your host, Giselle Kowalski, and we'll see you next time. Bye y'all.