Belmont Students Game On with E-Sports Group

Belmont Vision Multimedia, Joanna Walden

A new sports organization is taking over on Belmont University’s campus, and it's not a football team.

“It provides a real team environment,” said Zack Russell, vice president of Bruin Esports.

“If you love gaming, and you’re looking for people who love gaming, an Esports team is a great way to find that camaraderie because it is in a lot of ways just like a sports team.”

Electronic sports are a competitive form of video games played around the world. Queuing up this semester Bruin Esports plans to compete competitively.

The players will practice in Valorant and Rocket League teams, and just like physical sports teams, will go over film to improve their skills.

“We spend a lot of time going over previous games, essentially doing the same thing as doing film day in football,” said Russell.

Junior Caleb Skold, on both E-Teams, said they use AIM Labs software to practice and get more precise with aiming and tracking of targets in games.

“It’s a lot of aim training, reflexes, knowing where to aim before you need to aim, and knowing your environment,” he said.

While these teams level up their game throughout the semester, they also find ways to slow things down.

“The club itself isn’t just for competitive gaming,” said Russell. “It’s for people that get together and have fun playing video games.”

The group hosts more casual events as well to involve less experienced players and to give the more serious members a time to relax.

“We had group get togethers to play like Among Us and stuff, just party games. We have tried really hard to make it where everyone is included,” he said.

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This review was written by Reece Leddy.