When Carsen Blasdel was a freshman in high school he spent much of his downtime, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, playing “Rocket League.” Now a freshman at Wichita State, Blasdel has found a community of competitive video game enthusiasts.
This fall, Wichita State’s esports program held a week of open tryouts with each day focused on a different game. WSU hosts teams in “Call of Duty,” “Rocket League,” “Super Smash Bros,” “Overwatch” and “Valorant.”
The program is overseen by Joe Mazzara, a WSU alum who has been involved in the program since its inception. Mazzara said this year’s recruitment exceeded his expectations, with a total of 12 new students.
“We ended up picking up five people this year (from tryouts), which is actually significant, as I truly thought that we’d go in and pick up maybe one or two,” Mazzara said. “But there’s always a lot of talent on campus that just kind of comes out of the woodwork.”
Blasdel is a first-year mechanical engineering student and one of the new recruits for “Rocket League,” which he played often in high school.
“I played pretty competitively, and I stopped because there just wasn’t time for it in my life,” Blasdel said. “I saw this whole thing (tryouts), and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is perfect.’”
Blasdel said he was happy for an opportunity to improve in something he was passionate about in a supportive environment.
“There’s not necessarily an organized community for improving and just having people around you in the real world,” Blasdel said. “In basketball, you know, you can show up to the YMCA and have a community … and I don’t think that’s the same for esports.”
He said the environment at the tryout was “pretty relaxed” and that he felt confident going into them.
The tryouts consisted of open matches with non-leadership team members and other attendees playing matches with each other while the director and team captains looked for key attributes, like communication and teamwork.
One captain said these skills can be more important than technical ability. John Navarro, one of the “Super Smash Bros” leaders, said he looked for cohesion when observing the players.
“You can be the best player in the world, but if you can’t get along with your teammates, then it means nothing, right?” Navarro said. “If you aren’t a team player … then it’s just never going to work.”
In addition to open tryouts, esports recruits players across the country, mostly in the Midwest. Mazzara said that in 2019, when the program started, it was “scraping by” to find players in town and around campus. Now, they focus on promoting the Midwest Student Exchange Program to prospective students in the Midwest.
“I really believe in what we do here and I really believe in trying to make it affordable for students,” Mazzara said. “(The Midwestern Exchange Program) is something that is a huge boon to us when it comes to recruiting.”
The program offers a discounted rate to students who live in Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio or Wisconsin and decide to go to college in other Midwestern states. Additionally, WSU offers a 33% discount on nonresident tuition to eligible students from some Midwestern states. Students generally only get benefits from one of these programs.
Outside of recruitment, esports also saw high program retention rates. Thirty three students returned this year, something Mazzara correlated with team culture.
“It’s really exciting to have a lot of students returning more than ever,” Mazzara said. “Those people just carry over and get to continue to grow … It’s a sign for me that we’re doing something right.”
Mazzara said some teams, like the varsity “Valorant” team, are made up of mostly juniors and seniors and that it’s important to have a mixture of leadership and new members to grow the program.
“It’s really important for team culture to just carry over from year to year,” Mazzara said. “The guys that are freshmen and sophomores now are learning from those guys and watching how they operate. Preparing those younger students to take on those roles as they progress through the programs is really important.”
