Marcus Smith
Lantern Staff
On Saturday, Oct. 28, Butler hosted a competitive gaming event where any player 13 years or over could play against other players at a relatively similar skill level. The event began at 11 a.m. and was held at the Hubbard Welcome Center, and the event was open for anybody to watch.
Butler Community College and Grizzly esports hosted the event, and they partnered with Wichita LAN– Wichita’s Premier PC Gaming Event.
“This was mostly a casual event with a few small tournaments and raffles up for grabs,” Andrew Winningham, a student, said. “We had Ribbit computers supply 12 gaming PCs for people to play on, and this event was to showcase the draw that esports have and to test the waters essentially. It went very well, and people were largely happy with the way it turned out.”
Winningham, who ran this event, hopes to create an esports community at Butler. In the future, he hopes to have teams of students that will travel and also play in future competitions held by Butler. Those who are interested should email either awinningham@butlercc.edu or esports@butlercc.edu.
They played a total of two games, one of the games was Overwatch, a multiplayer shooter game. In the game, there is a war against an army of intelligent machines, and the team known as Overwatch must come together to defeat them. Rocket League, a soccer game, was another game played, where one drives rocket-powered, high-flying cars to make goals.
“I think the choices of the games that they made are good, they’re fairly casual, but a lot of people are playing them and a lot of people take them very seriously,” said Levi Sutton who participated in this competitive gaming event.
According to Sutton, the event was run rather well, with little to no power surges or servers crashing. He also felt the administration did a great job running it, and food was even provided for the players and the people watching.
“I’ve actually been surprised by the level of professionalism,” Sutton said.
If one was there to watch somebody play, they could go to individual computer screens if they were watching family or a friend, or one could watch the big screen that displayed one of the two games being played. Many contenders played, and many parents came to support them as well.
There was a money prize for the tournament play: $300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place.
The players registered online, which one would have been able to find through the Butler website if they searched Butler LAN party. One could have also registered when they walked in if there was a place for them to play. Only 40 players were allowed to play. Winningham hopes Butler will be able to have more players in the future.
“I’m hoping to always go bigger and better,” Winningham said. “I hope we can do 5-10 thousand dollar tournaments in the future and draw people from all over the nation. Hopefully this is just the beginning.”
