By: Jeremy Blye

 

From the last blog, we obviously know that the next year is right around the corner (2 WEEKS WOOO!). I luckily have been given the opportunity to start working within the Esports Center and get a feel of what the community is when it is in person. Walking into the center made me excited. Even though there has not been a huge flow of traffic within the center, it has made me happy to see the community that is coming together before the school year has even started. There is a level of respect I have not seen between people in awhile. It was nice to see the community function in person when I have only been able to participate virtually.

 

Seeing this within the first few shifts at the Gaming Center gives me hope with this upcoming year. As things slowly start returning to normal, it puts a smile to my face to see everyone just having a good time. It’s awesome that DePaul has the space to facilitate such an environment for our students. At points, I understand gaming can become extremely toxic, and it is great that no one I have seen cares for the drama that stems from such actions.

 

Overall, this blog is more on the short and sweet side. I felt the reopening of the Gaming Center deserved some more recognition. It deserves this type of recognition especially for those who are new to DePaul and are trying to find their way around as they move on to the next chapter of their lives. Not only this, I feel those who have been a part of the Esports community deserve the same amount of recognition. They have helped keep the community running throughout such a crazy year and a half. Like I said in the beginning, I look forward to what this year has in store for us, and I am ready for the ride that comes.

 

Updates for Esports:

• Tonight at 6pm, there will be an Esports event (SMASH BROS!!!!!!!!!!) in the Lincoln Park Student Center. Be sure to check it out, I am trying to make time for it.
• Tomorrow 8/28, the Rocket League and Smash team will be competing against NIU in a LAN over in Hoffman Estates starting at 4PM. Wish them all luck!
• We have a VALORANT and R6 collab coming soon, be on the lookout!

By: Jeremy Blye

 

Now that we are slowly winding down with the end of summer, I thought it would be neat to do a little reflection of what has gone on here at DePaul Esports and how far we have come. I honestly cannot believe that we are almost done with summer. It feels quite odd that the school year is virtually a few weeks away. Luckily, we do not (hopefully) any virtual school. I’m sure everyone including myself is excited to be back for in-person classes. All of this is just a side-note, but let’s take a look into what exactly has gone on.

 

Summer Showdown:

 

This whole series was by far the most enjoyable part of this summer. I never thought that I would be in a position of producing, casting, and putting together events. Yet, look where Kevin and I ended up going. We were able to have an event for COD, Rocket League, and VALORANT. Unfortunately, we were unable to host the event for Rainbow Six Siege, but hopefully we will be able to host more for the future. There was a lot of learning to be had by holding these events, but it honestly showed the potential we have for any type of physical or virtual event for our program. It was crazy to see that we would have consistently at least 20-30 viewers and VODs with over 400 views. Just about half of our whole community is tagging along for these events. This makes me so excited to see how hyper people are to get back to somewhat of a normal life. Now imagine what we could do if we ever do something like this in person. I guess time will have to tell. All I know is that Kevin and I will use everything we experienced over the past few months to bring with us for the future of the program.

 

DePaul Gaming League:

 

Unfortunately for me, I was unable to participate in any of our DGL series. I was honestly working when these occurred, but I still found time to look over the VODs. It was crazy to think that we were able to expand to games such as Skribbl.io and even Animal Crossing. Even though not as many people participated within these events, it was great to see how our casual side of the community was able to appreciate the smaller things we may offer. I know we were thinking of trying to host more pick up games throughout our different titles, but that unfortunately was unable to work out.

 

This Blog:

 

Now, I think we all know about this blog. The one and only Jeremy Blye is able to write this blog and find people to interview at the same time. I hope everyone who has had the chance to read some of my words and phrases even though they can be a bit much at points. I look forward to continue this into our upcoming school year.

 

I think this wraps up virtually everything I have to say for this blog. Like we have mentioned in the past, make sure you check out our Gaming Center in our Loop Campus. Starting Monday, August 23rd, it will be open from 11:30AM-9PM M-Th and 11:30AM-7:30PM on Fridays. Also if you are on campus, I may quite possibly be your RA if you are on the fourth floor of University Hall! Be on the lookout for what we have in the future!

By: Jeremy Blye

 

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/7/3/e001118#article-bottom

 

In the past week or so I have been given the opportunity to take a look at an academic paper that was written on the effects of sedentary sessions that come with gaming. This research paper was written by Joanne DiFrancisco-Donoghue, Seth E Jenny, Peter C Douris, Sophia Ahmad, Kyle Yuen, Tamzid Hassan, Hillary Gan, Kenney Abraham, and Amber Sousa. They all were looking at “the effect of prolonged sitting on executive function and performance in competitive esports players” due to this being unknown (Donoghue & co.) Wow, that was a mouthful. Basically what this paper goes over is how bad sitting for long periods of time can be.

 

I know a lot of you will not go out of your way to read this, but I find the information that was provided to be extremely valuable considering the fact that I am sitting around all day if I am on my computer. I even have a hip injury that is partly related to how I had been sitting at my computer. I never realized how important it is to work on posture and have some form of mobility while gaming, but now I do. Let’s get into the knitty gritty of the information provided.

 

In this study, there were 12 men and 9 women with an average of 20.76 years of age. These are demographics that fit within the people that fill our community. It honestly is a fantastic sample group to choose from. Obviously because of COVID this could not be done in-person so it was completed remotely. Let’s take a quick look into what exactly the researchers were looking at and what they were testing:

 

• Ultimate goal of seeing how adding some form of mobility would affect gamer’s performance and health
• One group played roughly 2 hours of an FPS title and had 0 breaks during gameplay
• One group played roughly 2 hours of the same FPS title and had a 6 minute walking break
• One group played roughly 2 hours of the same FPS title and had a 6 minute resting break (flat on the ground with their eyes open)

 

As far as the specific information for each participant, I do not find there is the need to highlight it. If you are interested into knowing the ethnicities, weight, and other facts such as this please refer to the link at the top of the blog. Refer to Table 1 for this information.

 

Figure 2 which uses a diagram to explain the situation above:

 

After the read of all of this, I felt it to be so important since the results pertain to myself. It applies to virtually all gamers and all competitive Esports players. We are all sitting around for sometimes hours on end and without many breaks. By actually becoming injured, I was able to further this realization with the data that was provided before my eyes. This is a moment where this is something my mother would tell me to work on and I would not listen to her because she’s my mother.

 

Let’s take a look into a “normal” gaming session. Let’s say that the title that is being played is CSGO. In a regular competitive game, it could take anywhere around 45ish minutes. If you were to play a whole series in competition this could last up to 3 games in many rounds. This could be up to 2 hours and 15 minutes (give or take). This study represents exactly how that “normal” gaming session would go. I know from experience that not a lot of people take breaks during gaming. Once you’re in that zone, you will not leave it. Even if you are in that zone, a question that is posed is how healthy is it to just sit for over 2 hours? Well, the simple answer is no. Here’s why:

 

• Performance Wise:
  • Gamers who took no breaks at all ended up performing the worst out of all of the comparison groups. This is because one is running themselves to exhaustion by playing competitively for hours on end.
  • Gamers who had a break played better, but the group who walked played the best. This is because during the walk it allows the body and mind to stay mobile. Not only this, the walking is the most healthy for a mental break for the game.
  • Again, I could go into further detail about the study, but I would like the researchers to have a little bit of spotlight with their findings since it is quite interesting.
• Health Wise:
  • The gamers who had no breaks at all tended to be exhausted in all areas of life. Based on the scale of exercise intensity, the researchers were able to see that the gamers with no break were more exhausted.
  • The reader (YOU) can probably figure out this one. The ones with the breaks felt that both types of breaks helped with their gaming performance. The walking group said that the “active walking break positively helped their gaming performance” (Donoghue & co.).

 

Why should you, the reader, care?

 

Honestly, you do not have to. I will sound like a broken record player at one point, but self-care in gaming is so important. If you do not upkeep yourself, you will deteriorate. Even though this is not a traditional sport, gaming still can affect one physically and mentally. This study shows within a relative small amount of gaming how much one can be affected. Just by taking breaks within a gaming session, it can impact how you play and how you feel. Again, the researchers go into much more detail in how this works, but I felt it needed to be highlighted. I also do not want to make this blog 2000 words and into my own little research paper. If there is anything you can get from this read is that you should take care of yourself and sometimes prioritize yourself…even if you do not want to.

 

Be sure to stay tuned for what we have in the future here at DePaul Esports! Tryouts are right around the corner…dates to be coming within the next 4-5 days at the latest. Not only this, we have the Esports Center reopening on August 23rd!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That will be an exciting time! As you all know, we have more working in the background, but until then, I will see you all in the next one!

 

 

By: Maggie Vallone

 

Times have been particularly trying recently in the eSports scene for women, POC, and minorities. It came out on July 22nd that California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a civil lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard, one of the largest video game developers in the United States (Good, Owen S. 2021.). The lawsuit alleges that women were subjected to constant sexual harassment which included groping, inappropriate comments and unwelcome advances. These women were passed over for promotions, despite taking on the responsibilities of their male counterparts who played games on the company’s dime. It also alleges that executives and human resources personnel not only knew about the harassment and failed to take action, but instead retaliated against those who chose to report the abuse. This lawsuit and the corporate culture it describes have people questioning the future of gaming. The practices of the developers they support. And the price of playing the games they love.

 

However, this shouldn’t be new news to anyone involved with video games. The gaming community has historically been less than welcoming towards women and minorities. During the 2014 Gamergate controversy, an online harassment campaign was centered around sexism and anti-progressivism in video game culture. Ubisoft, another gaming company, has been accused of similar conduct towards female harassment and job fairness. Riot, Electronic Arts, Naughty Dog, and other gaming companies all have been plagued by gender issues. This locker room culture isn’t unique to the corporate realm either; similar sentiments have become commonplace in the community. Racial slurs, rape jokes, misgendering, and death threats are part of the gaming experience for any player. Those who speak up are drowned out by anonymous mobs; harassment, cyberstalking, threats of doxxing, swatting, and bodily harm are only a few of the methods employed to silence them. 

 

As part of the eSports community we need to take steps to ensure that anyone is welcome; to let people know that they aren’t alone. One of the many ways we can promote an inclusive space is through Discord. Providing bots in DePaul servers that allow members to assign their own pronouns as visible roles is one step we can take towards normalizing different gender identities and presentations. A need that has become increasingly clear within the gaming sphere. By taking steps to create an inclusive community in DePaul’s eSports servers we can support our members and strengthen the movement towards equality in the industry and gaming as a whole. 

By: Jeremy Blye

 

Note: This series will again cover more of personal experiences and reflections within the Esports community. J is for Jeremy. M is for Max.

 

This week, I was able to speak with one of our Rainbow Six Siege players about Esports as a whole and within DePaul. This interview was extremely enjoyable and I have been loving gaining so much insight about our players and community!

 

J: Who are you?

M: Max Henley

 

Look at this guy above…what a good guy :).

 

J: What is your involvement within Esports?

M: I play on the Rainbow Six Siege Varsity Team

J: When did you start Esports in general?

M: I transferred to DePaul in January 2020, and it was right before COVID hit. I’ve been playing R6 for a few years now. I saw DePaul had an Esports program and the Discord server. Luckily for me they had tryouts about a week later so I got on the team.

J: I remember when I was joining an Esports team, I wasn’t really sure where to go. I knew I wanted to be involved within Esports, but I didn’t know where my talent could be used. I play all types of video games, and I was quite surprised how open the community was to a relatively novice competitive gamer like myself. Honestly, I was quite glad that I was able to find a spot within the community and I’m sure you are too. As far as tryouts go, how is Rainbow Six Siege handled?

M: With Siege, because its a smaller community, it required a lot of alumni to help out. We didn’t have enough people to make a lobby where it was the DPU squad versus the people trying out. We play it like a standard ranked match. In the past year with tryouts, we had it much more organized. This allowed us to have a general idea of how to get the players rolling into the flow of the team, and it also helped us realize how to help the org grow.

 

J: With COVID, Esports and gaming has had a lot of room to grow. A lot of people are recognizing the growth. How is DePaul allowing you guys to grow as a team and an org?

M: AdmiralSnackbar on the FPS board has been integral in getting the team recognized as an official team. We are now finally getting jerseys and a place on the Esports website. Not only has Snackbar helped out, DePaul has been and is the support system for the team’s growth. By having these attributes, real team structure has been established. There is growth with discipline. There are strats within the game being established. There is steady growth for the R6 team.

J: Basically there’s actual team structure.

M: When I joined, there weren’t any scheduled practices. There would just be a match day. We would have some notes over the VOD, but we did not have anyone to go into a detailed review. Now, this is how the team is structured: We have a match one every Friday night. Monday’s, we go over the VOD. Wednesday’s, we have just plain practice. We have improved so much as a team in the past 9-10 months due to the structure we have established.

 

J: Was it hard getting to this point when it seemed like there wasn’t much settled in the team’s infrastructure?

M: It was. With college kids, it is hard to have that discipline since some people don’t really want to have to listen to someone. You want to have autonomy in the way you play. You want to take charge of yourself. Yet, you have to listen to your game leads and go from there. I think once you figure out roles on the team and you write down certain things to make it concrete, it creates that sense of accountability. You know what you’re supposed to do in the game in all aspects. It is affected by how much time and effort you put into the game. You also have to factor in everything else you do outside of the game. 

 

J: One thing I know other Esports teams at DePaul have struggled to get past is creating that team discipline in a virtual landscape. How was Rainbow able to accomplish it so well?

M: Your age, experience, and time management skills are a big factor in getting the discipline down. If you look at the average age on the Rainbow team, you can see that it is about 20 years old. Because we have a little bit of extra experience in life, we can put together our practices and team structure much easier. The time management aspect of college is just another aspect of life you just learn and deal with. 

 

J: I agree that dealing with time management can be tricky and sometimes the best way to learn is to make a mistake. Do you feel that these mistakes are crucial to the learning process?

M: Some people in the moment may know they are making the mistakes they do, but then in a week they won’t know. A good example is that I went to Illinois State University, and then I went to Oakton Community College because I was slacking off. My parents would even question me how I changed so much to stay on top of everything. I just learned from my mistakes. It sucked in the moment, but I just learned from everything I failed from. 

J: I love hearing that you’re the type of person that tries to look at mistakes as positively as possible. You can always mess something up, but you never truly “fail” until you do not learn anything new. One aspect in gaming that could be represented within this idea of failure are the stereotypes that surround this activity.

 

J: Do you feel that the stereotypes that surround Esports sort of held you back when you were first interested?

J: I bring this up because everyone is a critic. I am. You are. It is impossible to say that you do not criticize some aspect of life. This is prevalent especially in gaming since everyone feels that they can blame gaming for a wide variety of reasons.

M: The percentage of people who have actually done something bad from gaming is minute. For example, when crimes happen, a very small percentage is driven by gaming. If anything, these Esport titles promote teamwork, communication, and accountability. These are the positives of Esports. The negatives are the trash talk and the violence that are “included” within the titles. Yet, these negatives are highlighted much more often than anything else.

 

J: Another negative aspect of Esports comes with the mindsets players have. A lot of Esports players say their games suck, why do you think it is? Why do you think it is from a R6 perspective?

M: People hate the game because the developers don’t listen to the community’s feedback. For so long we have asked for certain aspects to be added for a competitive community, yet it doesn’t happen. 

On top of this, some people get extremely toxic because they think the game is for money . By winning in a normal game, no one actually wins or loses something. It’s just a game. People need to take a deep breath and relax. In my own gameplay, I try not to rage in any way. In gaming, literally anything good or bad can happen in an instant. I just try to keep people calm and level headed.

In the R6 community, toxicity is a huge thing people have always dealt with. The developers have done a bunch of little things to help out find the people that are the problem. From the start of the game though, you can figure out who is toxic or not and it is something you cannot escape. 

 

J: What is your way to control tilt/rage for yourself and the team when people do things you can’t control?

M: The worst thing for us is when we have a map we are very good at and our strategy is blown up. Panic then settles in. We end up questioning everything that we are doing. One of us may die a minute in the round and then we think we are screwed. When it comes to that tilt, we can’t put it onto one person. Like I said earlier, I try to keep everyone calm. 

J: So you are the person who tries to keep everyone on the same page.

M: Basically as close as possible. 

 

J: How do you deal with the tilt when you have to scrutinize yourself?

J: When you look at high level players, you can come to the realization that to be able to improve, you must look at every little detail under a microscope. It must be so mentally taxing. I understand this from experience. So how do you get through this?

M: With these situations in mind, I learn from my mistakes, and I look at how to change myself for the future. I could always pose the 20 questions to myself as to what I could do better. This is not beneficial in any way. I have to learn from the moment and keep it in the back of my mind so I can avoid it in the future. If I make the same mistake, it gets to me since I’m like, “How did I let that happen?”. It’s not tilting, but it’s more aggravating than anything. I don’t think I’ve ever slammed my desk from raging.

 

J: How do you keep yourself so composed in gaming? I have struggled in the past with holding in rage due to the fact that I sometimes can’t handle losing complete control of the game.

J: I think one thing Esports players tend to struggle with is the control aspect of gaming. In any game, you have complete control of what you do under your fingertips. I understand from anyone’s perspective that this is frustrating since you think you can do whatever you want. Unlike traditional sports, gaming has very few external factors that may affect what is going on. Lag is one significant factor. This is not a huge problem most of the time though.

M: It gets to me at times, but it affects me in little ways. Lag may come in the worst possible times, but I don’t think it’s a huge issue with games. Being able to know what you’re supposed to do is all that matters. You can blame the game as much as possible, but it does nothing for anyone.

 

J: Why do you feel people deny other’s happiness when it comes to certain aspects of gaming? 

J: Joking about this is one thing, but why do you think people actually care?

M: I don’t know, but it may be the stigma behind certain communities. With communities like R6, people just put labels on the game just because they can. People don’t understand the time commitment required to get good at the game. For example, teaching new people can be extremely frustrating since they don’t know anything at all. The learning curve can affect the communities as well. Look at Mario Kart for example. It is super easy to just pick up and no one truly cares about the results of the game. Then people can look at Overwatch or R6 and then realize the competitive level of it. 

J: So they just amplify the main issues to make the game how it “should” be.

M: It amplifies the stigmas that go around gaming.

J: One thing I think that holds newer players from any game is the amount of events that can go on within a game. Within R6, there is so much one must learn to be able to succeed in any way. There are operators, their abilities, their guns, map callouts, map knowledge, strategy knowledge, and opponents to study. I feel this has pushed me away from certain games in the past.

M: I agree, the steep learning curves in games can be discouraging.

 

J: Before we end today’s interview, what do you think the potential you see out of a program like this at DePaul?

M: I think Esports as a whole has a lot of room for improvement. Since I’ve joined, there has been an increasing amount of interest in it. There are a lot of big titles for it as well. 

As a team, in the past few months we have made a designated schedule. We have improved a whole lot. It is important for teams to have the tryouts to be like a real sport. It helps bring out the idea that this is a tangible thing and that it is more than just a club. It is a team to help represent the school. 

 

J: You may have all of these ideas and data to help prove your points, but what is a feasible goal you can see the esports center accomplish?

M: I want to have everyone play in the gaming center. We would be able to see one another, and we would have that personal and physical connection between humans. 

Not only this, I would like to see more support for one another in the program as a whole. If we had some type of way to bring the community together more that would be fantastic. People know about the other games and teams, but there is not much more than that. A lot of people are segmented into the different groups, but no one really crosses over the different games that often. I wish we had a large Esports community instead of the segmented community it seems we have.

 

Just wanted to say thank you to Max for taking some time out of his day to sit down with me and let me interview him. I find it quite fascinating the different views of some of these general topics. Obviously, a lot of these players share similar values, but it is great to see how they can vary as well. Like I have said in the past, I would like to represent this community as much as possible and also help educate those who are and aren’t involved whatsoever.

Stay tuned for our upcoming events in DePaul Esports! Our Animal Crossing event is occurring tomorrow at 6:30 PM CST at the DePaul Esports Discord Server! Come swing by and check out the islands or enter for yourself. The winner will receive a pretty neat trophy!

Not only is our Animal Crossing event going on, we have our DePaul Summer Showdown going on August 19th starting at 7:30 PM CST. This will be streamed on twitch.tv/depaulesports.

 

 

By: Ricky Soto

 

 

We are all fans of someone or some team, whether it is football or soccer, CSGO, or LOL. We all have teams we support. While there’s a multitude of Esports organizations, not one is more recognizable than TSM.

 

TSM (TeamSoloMid) is one of the largest Esports organizations in NA, and they have been competing in the highest level of Esports since early 2011. With teams all over the gaming scene like Fortnite, R6, LoL, and Valorant, to name a few, they have decided to expand into the collegiate scene. TSMU started in April of 2021, is a collegiate-focused initiative built specifically for university students that have a passion for gaming and Esports.

 

By partnering with TSMU, DePaul students will have the opportunity to access events like career panels, Q&A’s with top Esports industry professionals, tournament watch parties, casual tournaments, and more. While DePaul has already been offering amazing events like these ones, TSM and its connections to the highly profitable industry surrounding it will also provide internship programs and coveted career opportunities within the TSM organization. DePaul students will have the chance to learn about, and connect with the multi-billion dollar Esports industry to develop the skills and network needed to pave the way for future care in the space.

 

Not only does TSMU offer many opportunities for growth and development, but it also aligns with DePaul’s Vincentian values through beliefs in progressive causes. TSM believes in inclusion and diversity in the Esports scene, hosting “Pride Visibility” streams, and pushing for a more welcoming community, similar to DePaul’s partnership with The GamerHER’s collegiate division a few months ago.

 

We can’t wait to see what our Blue Demons do with our TSMU colleagues and we’re sure all students will enjoy the partnership, even if they are C9 fans. Whether you’re at the top of your game and are looking to get involved, TSMU will have a place for everyone.

 

We can’t wait to get started! In the meantime, drop us a follow on social media at: @DePaulEsports and @TSMUniversity & @TSM respectively.

 

The les desso una buena semana,

 

Ricky Soto, DePaul Esports