Central Penn esports team looks forward to showing its skills again

By Tam Bui

Knightly News Reporter

tam.bui@mymail.centralpenn.edu

Esports is a relatively new sport in which competitors play video games against one another in competition games, often in leagues, at colleges and universities, and professionally.

Many games implement some form of esport or competitive mode by which players can test their skills. Some popular games include League of Legends, Rocket League, Counter Strike, Valorant and Call of Duty.

Central Penn is no stranger to this trend, and the college has a gaming club and an e-sports team that competes with other colleges, and some include the games previously mentioned. The team has brought trophies to campus, including one for coming in as the Rocket League 2022 national champions and one for securing a final-four placement in a Call of Duty Vanguard tournament that year.

Rocket League is a soccer video game and Vanguard is a version of Call of Duty in which players' avatars fight in important World War II battles, according to the game companies' websites.

Most recently, the esports team racked up a 2-11 record, but team members have a strong desire to continue improving. The 2024-2025 season began on Feb. 7.

"I plan on improving my game and helping the team by practicing daily and looking for feedback from my coach and teammates, as well as giving good feedback to my teammates," Logan Kibler said.

The team's trophies are in the Knights Game Lab, ATEC 304.

Mikeal Pecot, of Central Penn's information technology department, and Donnie Lewis, of the college's admissions department, coach the teams.