Page 20 - MidWeek - Nov 9, 2022

Playing To Win In The Esports Universe
FROM PAGE 17
focus of his research.
“For me it was not enough to
just read it. I had to take part in it,” he says. “I wanted to create (an esports program) because I saw other schools had something like that and I thought, why not here? Why not UH?”
The response so far, he says, has been amazing.
UH’s Valorant team is now ranked No. 4 among colleges and universities nationwide, having beat University of Arizona and Texas A&M last year to capture the Valorant Fall Brawl title. This year, it beat seven universities in the Asia-Pacific region to win the Association of Pacific Rim Uni- versities’ Rampage Invitational Tournament — clinching an in- ternational title. Valorant is one of the most popular multi-player first-person shooter games on the market.
cause of COVID-19, the Over- watch League — the game’s professional players’ league, also known as OWL — needed to vir- tually connect its East leagues (in China and South Korea) with its West leagues (in North America) for competitions.
East won the first few games. “But then we started winning games here,” he says. “That was a relief. That showed we could hold our own. We were expecting the worst, but I think Overwatch had one of its best seasons last
credits and shout-outs on OWL’s social media channels.
ports, the momentum continues. In September, they scored a visit from the head of Google’s Gaming and Strategy Initiatives. Moonlit Beshimov held an infor- mal talk to highlight the potential
NOVEMBER 9, 2022 MIDWEEK 20
(Left) The movers and shakers of the University of Hawai‘i Esports program include (from left) Kevin Nguyen, program assistant; Alie Wolpo, arena operations manager; Sky Kauweloa, director; and Madeline Gilbert, player support coordinator. (Right) Kylin Daniel and others focus their attention on a game of League of Legends in the UH iLab. ANTHONY CONSILLIO PHOTOS
Those wins were milestones for the program, but an even big- ger opportunity arose.
The problem was getting good ping — that’s industry slang for network latency, or the time it takes to transmit electronic data from a computer to an Internet server and back. Generally, the closer the computer to the server, the better the ping.
year because of us.”
Twenty UH students volun-
OWL returned to UH for its 2022 season finals earlier this year, and one of its North Amer- ican teams, the L A Gladiators, won the league’s Midseason Madness tournament from UH.
of esports beyond competition. “Most people think of gaming as not something you do for a living (but) it’s a leading indus- try for technology,” she told UH officials at the time. “It’s a huge market with a lot of innovation coming out of it. That angle is incredible besides the actual achievement of being a ranked
Overwatch Opportunity Blizzard Entertainment, one of the world’s largest video game companies, wanted to hold its
It remains to be seen how the UH-OWL relationship evolves post-pandemic. With travel re- strictions lifted, the league could return to the big arenas in Asia and North America.
Overwatch finals at UH-Mānoa. “We hosted Overwatch finals here five times last year,” Kau- weloa says. “They came here five times. They brought professional
The Overwatch game serv- er was in Japan, which is closer to South Korea and China than North America. That meant the East teams would have a faster connection and an unfair advan- tage. To even the playing field, OWL officials had to get the North Americans closer to Asia — with- out traveling internationally.
In addition to the invaluable experience, they also got college
But for Kauweloa and UH Es-
esports team in the nation.” That’s the direction Kauweloa
teams from North America.” Even for Kauweloa, a big be- liever in UH Esports, this bog-
sees for UH Esports, too.
“The next step is to create more
gled the mind.
“For us to be selected by this
public-private partnerships with industry,” he says. “My goal is to make sure students are interfac- ing with industry and able to get jobs. Students have a deep desire to be in this industry and I think we need to figure out ways to make that happen.
n-major gaming publisher to hold rldcompetitions was unreal,” he says. he It was the esports equivalent . of NFL or NBA teams playing enseason games in Hawai‘i, albeit ngwithout a stadium and crowds
They landed on Hawai‘i as the perfect middle ground and reached an agreement with UH.
“Honestly, I believe this is the future of UH,” he adds. “(People) will have to take seriously the gaming industry. We’ve already made huge strides in doing this. We’re actually out in the front among universities that do this.”
todue to the pandemic.
s- Like Valorant, Overwatch is
Still, Kauweloa worried some- thing would go wrong. What if the ping wasn’t good enough after all? Would the pros blame UH? Those fears weren’t alle- viated when the teams from the
hea wildly popular multi-player first-person shooter game. Be-
teered as interns, helping OWL run a global operation connect- ing players in Hawai‘i and Asia with shoutcasters in California to deliver entertainment to viewers around the world.
Ahead Of The Game
Kauweloa and UH are up for Esports Awards. The prestigious prizes — think Grammys for gamers — recognize the industry’s best. Kauweloa is nominated for Esports College Ambassador of the Year and UH has a chance to unseat Maryville University as Esports Collegiate Program of the Year.
This is a rematch for Kauweloa and UH, as they’d been nominated last year, but fell just short of bringing home the titles.
Voting is open to the public through Nov. 30 at esportsawards.com/vote.
The awards ceremony takes place Dec. 13 at Resorts World Las Vegas.
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