{"id":12095,"date":"2022-10-27T11:29:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T15:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=12095"},"modified":"2022-10-27T11:29:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T15:29:33","slug":"3-2-1-students-work-to-bring-esports-to-detroit-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2022\/10\/27\/3-2-1-students-work-to-bring-esports-to-detroit-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"3! 2! 1! Students work to bring esports to Detroit Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Detroit Mercy\u2019s new esports club is using video games to create a community for Titans, and battle against other colleges and universities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The club, which started last year, allows students to casually play a variety of video games, regardless of their skill level. It is attempting to build off University Recreation\u2019s intramural esports programming to operate as both a community and competitive club team.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents can compete against each other or they can just have game nights and have a good time,\u201d said Logan Manor, a third-year Computer Science student who serves as the club\u2019s president. \u201cIt\u2019s not meant to be just competitive; we\u2019re just playing games in general and building that type of community to have fun with games.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"TwoVideo games and esports have experienced immense growth and revenue in recent years, with the\u00a0<\/span>Washington Post calling the 2010s the decade of esports<\/span><\/a>. This boom has led to competitions akin to traditional sports, including at the professional and college levels.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Detroit Mercy\u2019s esports club helps students collaborate, develop as leaders and make friends, said Nathan Blume, faculty advisor for the club and instructional designer for the University\u2019s Office of Digital Education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile organizing and participating in competitive events, students develop social and technical skills that can be applied throughout their Detroit Mercy experience and beyond graduation,” Blume said. \u201cEsports can also inspire students to explore careers in related fields, including computer science, data analysis, communications, software development and cybersecurity.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate\u201d for the Nintendo Switch is a popular game within Detroit Mercy’s esports club. It hosted a tournament for the game on the McNichols Campus in early October, which attracted more than a dozen students competing to win a Respawn gaming chair.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"NineWhen it comes to esports competitions against other institutions, Manor says the club is focusing on \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d \u201cValorant\u201d and possibly \u201cRocket League.\u201d The club is currently playing virtual reality games \u201cBeat Saber\u201d and \u201cEcho Arena\u201d in the Collegiate Virtual Reality Esports league.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty simplistic using the VRs,\u201d Manor said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to use the lab computers.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for additional games and genres, Manor is open to suggestions from the Detroit Mercy community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who wants to compete, if they bring it to me, I\u2019m willing to try to find it for them to compete,\u201d he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Manor said Detroit Mercy\u2019s esports club is focused on building its foundation and growing its community this year. The club has received support from several employees at the University, including College of Engineering & Science Dean Katherine Snyder, who is providing space and equipment in the Engineering Building for members to use.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students\u00a0interested in joining Detroit Mercy\u2019s esports club can find more information and links to social media platforms and a Discord channel on its\u00a0Detroit Mercy Live webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u202fBy\u00a0Ricky Lindsay<\/a>.\u00a0Follow Detroit Mercy on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>. Have a story idea? Let us know by\u00a0submitting your idea<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Detroit Mercy\u2019s new esports club is using video games to create a community for Titans, and battle against other colleges and universities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":12097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,4404],"tags":[4865,3096,5732,5733,794,3094,798,567,678,3576],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2022\/10\/2-Image-1.jpeg?fit=1440%2C962&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbwnTV-395","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12098,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12095\/revisions\/12098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}