{"id":3532,"date":"2018-02-08T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/lavie\/?p=3532"},"modified":"2018-02-08T08:00:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T08:00:16","slug":"esports-comes-to-lvc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2018\/02\/08\/esports-comes-to-lvc\/","title":{"rendered":"Esports comes to LVC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Albright \u201918, Staff writer<\/p>\n

Lebanon Valley College became the 51st<\/sup> member of the National Association of Collegiate Esports when it announced its plans to organize an esports team for the spring semester.<\/p>\n

Esports, to put it simply, is competitive video gaming. Teams, ranging from three to 10 players in size, compete in tactical video games against other schools\u2019 teams. LVC\u2019s esports team will compete in three games: Hearthstone, Overwatch and League of Legends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have about 36 active students who are playing esports at LVC,\u201d David Shapiro, esports director of operations, said. \u201cWe have several other students who are deciding whether they want to commit to the team officially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esports is The College\u2019s 26th<\/sup> varsity sport and the athletic staff is expecting the new sport to be well received by prospective and current students. Esports will also be LVC\u2019s first co-ed sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffering esports as a varsity sport really separates us from other schools,\u201d Rick Beard, director of athletics, said. \u201cAnother reason we are doing it this way is because we already have the model setup to do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collegiate esports is currently governed by the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), which is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to developing the structure and advancement of esports on college campuses. NACE is the most prominent esports association and will provide LVC\u2019s team with competition once the program is established.<\/p>\n

\u201cNACE is essentially the NCAA for esports,\u201d Beard said. \u201cThere are entry requirements, admissions requirements and transfer rules that you must comply with in order to be a part of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esports, as a whole, is a low-expense sport because student-athletes are not required to travel, no meals need to be provided and there is no need for officials. LVC\u2019s esports team will be provided with uniforms and other necessary equipment in order to be successful in competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of right now, nothing is being reallocated out of the athletic budget to fund esports,\u201d Beard said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to build this [program] on projected revenues coming in from sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The esports team will use existing space on campus as its arena where the student-athletes will practice and compete in matches. The College plans to add spectator seating at some point in the future, but no official plans for that have been released. The esports arena will be in an unused portion of Clyde A. Lynch Memorial Hall that would\u2019ve been converted into a conference room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was better use of the room for esports than turning it back into a conference room,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe wanted to support our students in any way that we could. This was the right move to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

The athletic department is looking forward to having current and future Dutchmen join the esports roster this semester.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colin Albright \u201918, Staff writer Lebanon Valley College became the 51st member of the National Association of Collegiate Esports when it announced its plans to organize an esports team for the spring semester. Esports, to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}