AU esports program expands to eight teams; League of Legends in PBC final
By Noah Bowers | Sports writer
The spring demester has been busy for the emerging Augusta University esports program.
Last semester, the program hosted two varsity and two junior varsity teams for Rocket
League and Valorant, respectively.
Now, the Jaguars host varsity rosters in Overwatch, League of Legends, Valorant and Rocket League, as well as some student-led teams. With more than 40 student-players, the growth has been fast and furious for the program, but the best is yet to come.
For the spring semester, the Peach Belt Conference chose League of Legends and Overwatch to be the competitive titles. AU hit the ground running and had a stellar season for both debut rosters. The Overwatch team finished the season 6-3 and a third-place finish in the PBC.
“This team was definitely a coach's dream team,” said Overwatch Coach Nicole Hanson, an AU student who volunteered to coach the new roster. “They just took feedback and absorbed it like a sponge. They were eager to learn and improve. Most concepts we tackled really only needed to be presented one or two times.”
Hanson has ambitions for the future of the program too, seeing the early potential.
“The more visibility the teams and program have, the higher our potential for recruiting talent and opportunities,” Hanson said. “The next step for AU is to hire a full-time esports director, and I would love to see an invitational LAN event in the future.”
Colin Stewart, head of Student Life and Engagement, hopes to have that full-time esports director in place by fall semester 2024.
The AU League of Legends team set the PBC ablaze throughout the regular season, finishing 5-2 (with the two losses coming in the forms of forfeits due to scheduling issues). Now the Jaguars are competing for a chance at the title in the PBC championship against the University of North Georgia. The final will be hosted at the University of South Carolina at Aiken on Saturday, March 23.
With a victory, the Jaguars would secure back-to-back PBC championships in two different leagues (both with debut rosters) after securing the title in Rocket League in the fall 2023 semester.
You can find more info on the matchups and schedules here:
https://nsl.leaguespot.gg/organizations/127b486c-8a3d-4912-bc1e-21fbe190027f
The streams and highlights for the entire season can be found on their Twitch channel here:
www.twitch.tv/augustauniversity_esports
You can show up and support the League of Legends team at USC Aiken this Saturday for free with your student ID or tune in to www.twitch.tv/peachbelt on March 23 at 3 p.m.
Contact Noah Bowers at nbowers@augusta.edu.
Esports teams practice in the Jaguar Esports Arena in the Georgia Cyber Center. The Jaguars are competing in the Peach Belt Conference League of Legends title match against North Georgia on March 22. (staff photo) At the top of the page, the AU junior varsity Rocket League team includes Byron Gibson, Carson Berry, Carlton Collins and Coach Jacob LoRusso. Kneeling is Varsity Rocket League standing Jordan Moratín. (photo by TK Guerrero )
