As announced on October 25th, 2023, Texarkana A & M University Texarkana plans on expanding its athletic programs come the new year. Among the planned additions, Varsity Esports is one that may catch the attention of some students. For the past four years, the Esports club on campus has been working to get funding and faculty backing to compete with other campuses. Even local high schools achieved this goal before our very own Eagles, but now that has finally changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club started in 2019 and has since been growing its numbers and putting on events for the campus to get the attention of students and faculty to show that this is a big interest amongst the student population. Strides were made when the club acquired its very own room in Spring of 2023. Since then the club has hosted multiple MarioKart 8 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournaments in this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When reaching out to longtime Esports club member and co-founder George Sawyer on his opinions of the big news, he said, \u201cI am glad it’s finally coming. We have worked very hard but at the end of the day it wouldn\u2019t have been possible if it wasn\u2019t for the new university president so thanks to him everything will finally be becoming real after over 4 years.\u201d The club has changed much since its conception so when asking one of the new current members about what they have planned going forward now with this new support, Quencey Jones, the current vice president of the club says\u201c I am very excited that we are being funded. I am hoping for the future that we get our PCs soon and [gain] access to better tournaments\u2026really looking for Valorant, Cs2, and Overwatch 2 players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many options will soon be available for all interested, but currently the club is focused on Apex Legends, a first-person-shooter game that has characters with unique abilities fight until one stands victorious. Juan Couchenour, the club\u2019s current treasurer says, \u201cWe do weekly scrims [on] the weekends. We have a five person Apex team for these tournaments with some alternates.\u201d When asked about the future and other titles Juan had similar names while also including Rocket League as another focus once this all falls into place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big things are coming for our Eagles and any student can be a part of it. Though the varsity teams start in the 2024 year, the opportunity to meet with club members is still possible by attending meetings in UC 323 and participating in any upcoming events that they have planned, one being a FIFA tournament that will be occurring on November 12th in the Patterson Student Center with more information being posted there or outside of Student Life. With all these new opportunities coming to campus, are you game?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As announced on October 25th, 2023, Texarkana A & M University Texarkana plans on expanding its athletic programs come the new year. Among the planned additions, Varsity Esports is one that may catch the attention of some students. For the … Continue reading