Northwestern gamers are on the grind. Reporter Emily Zou talked to players of Riot Games’ tactical shooter Valorant that also happen to be students here on campus.
ZOU: This is the sound of esports
Clip from Valorant Popflash Envy vs Dig tournament: “The Operator’s out of the picture, Kaboose, Kaboose, Kaboose! Oh my god, that’s insane-”
ZOU: But what does esports sound like here at Northwestern? Today I talked to some players slash students of the tactical shooter game Valorant about the vibrant esports community we have on campus as well as their thoughts on the current state of the game at large.
MANSKE: “I think, because our school has a hyper competitive nature, people think it’s a waste of time. And I would argue that it’s definitely not. So I think there’s probably a lot of like, closeted gamers on campus that just don’t want to tell anyone.”
ZOU: You just heard from Nadine Manske, a senior in Medill, calling for Northwestern gamers to rise up. But even if you’re not an expert gamer like Manske, you’ve probably heard of the likes of League of Legends, CSGO, or Fortnite. Valorant, which was released in 2020 by the same company that owns League of Legends, is currently one of the most popular games out there. And Northwestern eSports Club is definitely playing Valorant.
LI: “I’d say in a week, I play let’s say 10 to 15 hours”
LI: “My name is Matt Lee. I’m a freshman in Weinberg”
ZOU: Li is a part of Northwestern’s Valorant B-Team.
LI: “Because of the B team, I now consider it kind of an extracurricular Okay. But I also do other things. Like I’m on the Frisbee team.”
ZOU: Edison Tan, another freshman in Weinberg, agrees.
TAN: Treating something that I’ve had as a pastime more as an extracurricular, like, having said meeting times, practices scrimmages, that type of stuff. It’s definitely interesting. It kind of broke what I thought was the distinction between my own hobbies and like school extracurriculars
ZOU: At Tan’s peak, he was one of the top 1% of players in his region.
TAN: I got as high as the top 3000. But since then, I’ve been playing less and losing more.
ZOU: Given that it’s only Tan’s second quarter here, I asked how he’s found Northwestern’s gaming and Valorant community.
TAN: I think the student community’s bigger than I expected. I just quickly took a glance at the eSports discord we have, and there’s five people playing right now. So it’s definitely more extensive than I assumed it would be. Because when you come to university, especially with Northwestern being prestigious and whatnot, you would assume it’s all academics and social life is more like partying. You don’t really think of games or video games. So it’s definitely more extensive than I thought.
ZOU: Strong the student community may be, Tan doesn’t feel like the school is supporting the eSports club to the same extent that Northwestern’s peer institutions are.
TAN: We don’t have a school supported eSports program as much as other schools. Just for example, UC Berkeley, or even some of the Ivy League’s really have started expanding their Esports programs, like giving their students practice rooms, certain types of gear and support, like say they don’t have access to a computer. So I think the students definitely have a strong community here. But it’s not technically a school supported one like completely officially.
ZOU: Nadine Manske, who you heard from at the beginning of the piece, also serves as the Vice President of Northwestern eSports Club
ZOU on the recording: Can you tell me what the next step for eSports club is?
MANSKE: I’ll tell you a little bit, I will tell you as much as I can. We are really working on getting more funding for our club. There’s a lot of people who really want to be involved in a competitive capacity. But we don’t have as many resources as other schools because we haven’t really been recognized as kind of an official eSports you know, organization club, whatever. But we’re working with, you know, we have, there’s, there’s things of the works, that we’re working towards getting more funding and recognition for our players. And, of course, there’s always opportunities. I think people think that eSports club is only for people who want to compete collegiate competitively, and it’s certainly not like we have a great community of people who play games casually as well.
ZOU: As a casual Valorant player myself, I’m excited to see what’s next. Live from WNUR News, I’m a Viper main, a Sentinels fan, and also Emily Zou.
