One of West Virginia’s first collegiate esports teams won a national championship in December.
In 2019, Concord University was the first public university in the state of West Virginia to develop an esports competition program.
The Concord University Esports Maroon Team, one of 12 teams at the university, won a national championship in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Elite Division.
Austin Clay is the Esports director at Concord University and said the Rocket League match was won with intelligence and planning.
“Because of our research and because we better prepared for the match, and we understood how they played we were able to come out on top and take that victory though, which is why it’s so impressive,” he said.
The team went 7-1 in the ECAC regular season, only losing to Brewton Parker College, of Georgia. In the Grand Finals, the Maroon team played Brewton-Parker College once again, and consisted of Chase Koger, Ethan Tucker and Will Jackson.
Tucker, whose gamer tag, or nickname is “E.T.” is a sophomore who transferred from Brewton Parker College. He is a computer science major at Concord.
Jackson, whose gamer tag is “Pancakes” is a senior who has been playing for concord since the founding year of Rocket League in the fall of 2022 and is finishing his bachelor’s degree in computer science. Jackson is the captain of the team.
Koger, whose gamer tag is “Helix” is a freshman and the only in-state player for the varsity Rocket League team from the town of Iager in McDowell County. Koger is also pursuing a computer science degree.
Clay said he is not only proud of the team for their win, but their academic achievements as well.
“From an academic standpoint, our three players that play on that roster had an average GPA of 3.31,” Clay said. “So they are really intelligent, while also competing.”