Oakland U Launches Varsity Esports Program

Oakland Esports

Michigan's Oakland University is starting up a Division I varsity esports program this fall. The inaugural teams will compete in League of Legends, Super Smash Bros. and Rocket League.

Tryouts for the teams took place in June, with more than 50 players competing for roster spots.

In a news announcement, Esports Head Coach Carl Leone commented on the three teams: "I am incredibly excited about our League of Legends roster. Our players are very talented and well balanced. They are strong mechanical players and they have a strong understanding of the strategy of League. All players rank in the top 2 percent of all players in North America. This team should be a force nationally by winter." He continued: "Each of the players on our Smash team is incredibly talented and has their own unique style of play. This team will have a tremendous impact at Smash events in the Midwest right away." And as for Rocket League: "Every member of our inaugural Rocket League team ranks in the top 3 percent of all players in the United States. Our players cover a wide range of specialties including: aggressive, defensive, mechanical, patient, communication and sharpshooter. I anticipate our team being locally dominant and nationally competitive in our first year of play."

The esports program has partnered with Team Renegades, a professional esports team based in the area, for practice and competition space.

For more information, visit the Oakland Esports site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.

  • Two stylized glowing spheres with swirling particles and binary code are connected by light beams in a futuristic, gradient space

    New Boston-Based Research Center to Advance Quantum Computing with AI

    NVIDIA is establishing a research hub dedicated to advancing quantum computing through artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing technologies.