As the esports community keeps growing in the state of Texas, it seemed like the perfect time to check in with a young man who was passionate about changing the status of esports at his soon-to-be alma mater. He put in the time to speak with someone on a city official level, gathered more recruits, and lost sleep to pitch why the e-sports lab is important to the campus. Now, we have to ask, did any of it successfully convince the school to look into it? 

Since the beginning of October, George Sawyer has been on the path to bringing more recognition to his e-sports team at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. Unfortunately, since we last spoke, George has been a bit busy working than spending time with the team as he hates to admit. “I’ve been spending more time working, I still hangout with the team, but not as much,” said Sawyer. Having an esports lab for the university is something George wanted to discuss back in October, but he never secured the meeting, and he felt that the meeting wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. “I didn’t get the meeting, but even if I had the school wasn’t gonna care enough to give us the lab, so I’m not too beat up about it,” he said. 

The school announced that they received a grant to build the new engineering building, and when asked, George stated that he was happy for the school and “hopefully in seven years when they are done building it, then there is an esports lab incorporated.” As he gears up to graduate in the next semester, Sawyer has been recruiting freshmen and training underclassmen for his position on the team. 

The esports team has been competing in tournaments for the last couple of months and didn’t do too good the first time around, but “only lost to nationally ranked teams,” he said. Next week, the team is gonna be collaborating with SVA for an on-campus tournament. “If you’re interested in video games, winning, making new friends, or just like watching people play then ask about our e-sports team.”