NOVA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FAIRFAX VA PROFESSIONAL

He hopes to go on to George Mason to continue his studies. Tommy Thomas is a second-year engineering student from Burke, Virginia. So how do Esports fit into their future plans? Saturday for a spot in the national quarterfinals.įor many of the Nighthawks, NOVA represents a step along the way in their education, not the final piece. Now, they’ll face the only team to beat them thus far, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, at 3 p.m. But can the league capture the grassroots energy created by some of the biggest games for its own title, NBA 2K?Īfter sweeping past Randolph-Macon 3-0 in the first round, the Nighthawks stormed back from a 2-0 hole to win the final three maps to beat Lebanon Valley College, advancing to the Sweet 16. Why the Wizards, NBA are betting big on esports Nevertheless, to be one of the top 10-15 teams in the nation as the only junior college competing is no small feat. Eight teams are tied for first the Nighthawks are one of six teams tied for second. NOVA entered the Overwatch Collegiate Championship tournament ranked tied for second in the country, though the rankings don’t work quite how sports fans are accustomed to understanding them. Esports remains a highly fluid entity when it comes to which games are played most popularly, but for now, Overwatch is king. It’s no wonder others are desperate to engineer other Esports and try to build communities around them. It has taken less than three years - roughly 1,000 days - to grow to a game played by 40 million people.

NOVA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FAIRFAX VA PROFESSIONAL

To wit - as we talk about college scholarship structures and the various levels of amateur and professional competition, this is a game that was only initially released to the public on May 24, 2016. As institutional changes to the NCAA can draw out over protracted courtroom battles that span years and even decades, the landscape of Esports is constantly in flux even as it’s still being laid down. “Because there are students out there that are very good and just play because they enjoy it.”įor traditional sports fans, it’s helpful to imagine the life span, growth and evolution of the Esports world happening at light speed. “One of the biggest things was to get the word out, get students excited,” Gaul said. There were no scholarships, no recruiting beyond emails to the student body and flyers taped up around campus. Not only was the Overwatch team only assembled this past fall, it was done so simply out of the students already on campus. “I came here, they gave me a room, they said, ‘This is what we have in stock’ hardware-wise, make us a program.” “Everyone on my roster is someone who was already a student here and just said, ‘Hey, that’s something I’ll try out for,’” Said Chris Gaul, NOVA’s director of Esports, who was hired straight out of Allegheny College, where he helped set up their Esports program as a graduating senior last year. But as of now, they are the only junior college competing at that level, alongside schools as large as Ohio State and UCF. That allowed NOVA to fit into the landscape, launching their Esports program this fall. There are no divisions, in the traditional sense, to separate public from private schools, large state institutions from small technical or liberal arts academies. The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) includes more than 80 members, recognized by NJCAA and NAIA, but not yet by the NCAA. There are now dozens of college programs, as well as the professional Overwatch League, which has 20 teams around the world, including the recently launched Washington Justice, which played its first match on Feb.

But it’s exactly what the Northern Virginia Community College Esports program has done in its inaugural year, without any of the benefits of a four-year school, as the Nighthawks have staked their claim as one of the best college Overwatch teams.įor the uninitiated, Overwatch is a team-based, six-on-six multiplayer video game designed as an Esport, with more than 40 million players worldwide. It’s an impossible scenario for a number of reasons, given the institutional structures and talent disparities in a sport like college basketball. Not only are they up to the challenge, they nearly run the table on the regular season, beating all but one team in their path, steamroll through the first round of the NCAA Tournament, then stage an epic comeback to make the Sweet 16.

Imagine: A brand-new junior college basketball team is allowed to compete in Division I for a year.

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