10039903_MCM_OCT2021

MYSPORTS

Kettering University eSports BUILDING A CONTENDER PHOTOS COURTESY OF KETTERING UNIVERSITY

In no time at all, Kettering’s team was making their presence known throughout the state. “We are one of the founding mem bers of the Michigan eSports Confer ence (MEC),” states Nowaczyk. “We are also a member of the National Asso ciation of Collegiate eSports (NACE) along with nearly 200 schools across the country.”Kettering competes in a variety of game titles such as Overwatch, League of Legends, Smash Ultimate, Rainbow Six, Rocket League and Valo rant, and boasts a large team of nearly 74 members across titles. “We have a varsity team and an academy or ‘developmental’ team,” explains Nowaczyk. “In standard sports terms, our academy team can be considered junior varsity.We had over 50 students apply to try out this past year.”

For team Head Coach Dan Nowaczyk, competitive video-gaming and Kettering University are

was always curious about it but after at tending a conference in Ann Arbor and sitting through a presentation, he gave me the go-ahead. We sent out a survey to check buy-in and got nearly 500 responses – that’s a quarter of our en tire student population!” he laughs. In fall of 2019, it was official and eSports became a varsity sport at Kettering.

a natural fit. “I had been pushing for it for six years,” he says. “Our president

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