Inside Stout Ep. 1 - Esports at UW-Stout

For our pilot episode, we had an enlightening conversation with two students, Gavin Raph and Cheseng Lo (Chewy), who are involved in Esports at Stout. Press play to learn what esports is, how players practice, how the team dynamic is similar and different to a "regular" sports team, pre-game rituals, and more!


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Transcript

Rachel : 0:00

You are listening to Inside Stout, a UW-Stout podcast that focuses on the stories of students, faculty, staff, and others from our campus community where we're changing the world every day. Hello, welcome to Inside Stout, a UW-Stout podcast that focuses on the stories of students, faculty, staff, and others from our campus community. I'm Rachel Hallgrimson

Pam: 0:34

And I'm Pam Powers. We are members of the marketing communications team here to share with you, everything that makes UW-Stout unique. How's your day going, Rachel?

Rachel : 0:44

Pam, it's going great. I am so excited to be recording the first episode of Inside Sttout. That has been the highlight of my day so far. What about you? Well,

Pam: 0:55

I'm really just can't believe how quickly summer is flying by, but I'm really looking forward to the fall semester. And one of the exciting parts of the fall is e-sports.

Rachel : 1:07

We are not equipped to tell everyone about e-sports,Pam. So we invited some experts on e-sports into the studio today. So why don't you both introduce yourselves?

Gavin : 1:19

Hi, my name is Gavin Raph. I am the UW-Stout League of Legends coach for the e-sports team. I'm a marketing and business education major here at Stout, and I'm really excited to get this opportunity to talk about UWAUW-Stout e-sports because it's something that within this past year I've been putting a lot of time into and I really hope that it can, yo u k n ow, continue to develop.

Chewy: 1:39

And I'm Cheseng Lo and I'm j part of the league of legends team as a player, but this year I'm going to be a sub instead. I am a human and family studies major at UW-Stout.

Pam: 1:54

Talk with me about what is e-sports for those who may not know?

Gavin : 1:59

So e-sports to put it simply is, you know, playing computer games or video games to whatever capacity that you may know them, uh, on, you know, like a more competitive level. So think of it. It's, it's like the equivalent to like playing, you know, college soccer. Instead you're just playing a video game for your college. Uh, there's a lot of different games, obviously that you can play just like there's a lot of different sports that you can play. And, uh, it's a great opportunity for students who, you know, are really passionate about those games to kind of get in a more competitive setting and to meet new people in the college environment that they can interact with.

Rachel : 2:34

Chewy, what's been your experience so far with e-sports? So far it has been pretty fun. Like, um, honestly when I first came in the program. I thought it just kind of did it for fun, and then like, you know, creating new friends and, you know, I had a fun time competing with them. Got really close to almost going through what is it like professionals, very close, very, very close. And, you know, we give our hearts to it, but sadly not, they're just better teams. So we have a Carter. So you practice just like any other sport.. Did you both know about e-sports before you came to college? Yeah. How did you know about it? How did you hear about it?

Chewy: 3:13

For League of Legends, well, we've been playing for a long time, so it's been like probably seven plus years from playing. Um, there's been many immediate stages of League of Legends on there's a world tournament like it was all around the world each and every year. So I think last year was China. Um, and you know, it was really fun watching all these top teams competing against each other, cause it shows the difference between like north America and Europe and everything.

Pam: 3:37

Tell me a little bit about the League of Legends. Tell me about the game. What did you know? What's the strategy? What do I need to know?

Rachel : 3:43

What's the story too?

Gavin: 3:45

So legal legends is technically classified as a five V five MOBA. So there's like three different lanes t hat characters can go down and then there's a jungle in between all of the lanes, the goal of the game is to destroy your o pponents, nexus or base, u h, first. And obviously whoever destroys it first wins throughout the game. You obviously earn like different experience points a nd gold, which you can do to level up your character and to gain new items that will increase your character strength. And then from then on, you have t o battle against your opponent to obviously try to garner an advantage to see who can destroy the base. First is generally the pretty simple explanation I obviously could go into longer, but

Rachel : 4:24

So Gavin, how did you find out about e-sports? Did it start with League of Legends or how, how old were you?

Gavin: 4:32

Yeah, um, I was actually inin middle school. I was, I played a few other games for fun with my brother, a lot of the times. And then one day my brother came up to me and he was like, Hey, so I got this new game that you have to try out. And I'm like, what's this? I have no idea. He's like, it's called league of legends at that point. Never heard of it. Didn't know what it was. And he was like, yeah, it's super fun or whatever. So I, you know, I started playing or whatever, and we played together here and there and uh, I started learning the game a little bit more. And then obviously as I became more invested I started to looking into, you know, what other things can I do with League of Legends? Like what is League of Legends all about?

Gavin : 5:07

And then I, I did the same thing that Chewy did, and I discovered the pro scene. And I started watching North America in different countries around the world, you know, competing at the top level of the game. And, uh, that hooked me in just like when I was a kid, when I used to watch football and I really liked the competitive aspect and the different coaching and the strategy that goes into it. And, uh, I was really taken by it. And obviously it was a mixture of a game that I really enjoyed to play and a competitive scene, which I usually had the tendency to be really competitive. So I was like, well, if I can mix these two things, why wouldn't I try to do that? So I ended up playing all through middle school and all through high school and even into college. And, uh, I've, I've been hooked ever since I started playing the game basically.

Pam: 5:50

So how many different teams does UW-Stout have and when did the e-sports get started? And can you talk at all about what the plans are the fall?

Gavin : 5:58

You're talking to the right guy. Uh, so we currently have three different games that UW-Stout is participating in. We have League of Legends, we have Overwatch and then we have Rocket League. Uh, those are the three main games that we competed with in this last year. However, this was our first year of play and with COVID, it was a little bit hard to do exactly what we wanted to do, but we did, we did make it work. U h, we have been in discussion with the coaches and with administration to possibly, add more games, things like Valor a nd have been talked about things like Super Smash Brothers have been talked about. U h, there's, there's a, there's a lot of other games that we've, you know, debated on whether or not we want to add to the e-sports organization. U h, there's a lot of things that behind the scenes obviously have to have to go into that we have to have a coach, we have to get approval. We have to, you know, find the correct, you know, competitive, uh, area in which we can play, uh, because Overwatch league and rocket league all have collegiate leagues that you can play in which we did participate in in this last year. So you kind of have to make sure that those things are all in order in order to get the green light on a game in order for you to be able to add it to the program. But in terms of what we're looking forward to, to doing in the future. Uh, obviously the biggest thing is, this entire last year, because of COVID, we were all online completely. We did not really meet in person at all. The only things that we really met in person for were the things that I, as the coach kind of did off the books and I invited people over. Cause I'm like, you guys spend so much, so much time playing together and, you know, interacting I'm like, it feels just wrong for you to if like never met in person. So I would invite people over, you know, they would get to know each other on a more personal level. And I think personally, at least from what I saw, it definitely helped improve our performance in game and becoming more comfortable with, you know, the players and with me, uh, I, I don't know if the other teams, you know, did the same thing, but I felt like that as a coach was my priority because as much as the priority is on the game and our performance within the game, it's also about, you know, the experience and the people that you're around. And if you don't form those meaningful connections, you're not necessarily going to be able to get as far.

Rachel : 8:05

That makes sense. And I don't want to focus on the events of this past year and a half, but did you see how being a part affected the actual playing and performance? A nd, and how did that kind of look, how did you keep up morale? Yeah,

Gavin : 8:25

A big thing for me, at least at the beginning. So, interesting story. I was not originally the coach for the team. We originally had a different coach and I actually first signed on as a player. So I was playing for the first, you know, two 30 months with, with the team as we had two rosters that we were playing with and I was the top laner for the second roster. And, uh, our coach had something or our previous coach had something personal come up so that he could no longer coach the team. And then, you know, administration going around, like, we need to find a new coach because we need a coach for the team in order for the team to exist. And, I had always been interested in coaching and I really liked the dynamic that my team h ad. So I went to administration.

Gavin: 9:08

I'm like, I, I would be more than willing to be coach. I have, you know, X amount of background and, uh, I already know the players and I've formed a relationship with them. I'm like, would you, you know, give me a shot. And they're like, absolutely, we'll give you an interview and we'll, we'll walk you through the steps. So went through an interview and everything went really great, they really liked what I was, uh, putting forth to them. And they signed me on as the new coach. So ever since then, I have, you know, been coaching the team, trying to, you know, go through different, you know, strategies in which we can use different characters that we can play. I try to personally, one of the things that I try to do is try to watch as much pro form as many different reaches and as I can as possible and try to implement as much as, from what I see from p ros, that's working i n being successful into our own team strategy. Obviously it doesn't work all the time because all the players are not pro players. So there are certain strategies that I'm just like, yeah, this is probably too difficult for us. And, i t's just not doable, but I don't know. I, I try to do my best to feel like I'm the most equipped to give my players the best amount of information at any given amount of time, whether that's about the game, whether that's about, you know, other teammates and the team dynamic and things like that. And yeah,

Rachel : 10:19

Very cool. It was definitely a challenging past year and a half for every type of team I n existence. So I'm glad that you were able to still do it, especially still compete, you know, a lot of sports weren't even able to do that. So, very cool.

Pam: 10:36

Chewy talk with with me a little bit about why you would encourage others to maybe get involved in e-sports?

Chewy: 10:42

I mean, the first part of it is if you enjoy playing video games, especially competitive games, like just don't look into it because it brings into who like a whole another skillable perspective. Like, can you be like, can give you playing games? Cause like, for me, no, I was always as a casual game, gamer before, but you know, once I stepped into the e-sports field, it's like, oh, I can get better at this g ame. Y ou k now? And I ended up like being l ike f or m e, I'm average player, but then when I put my mind i nto it, when facing higher people I can beat them easily, it's like, wow. You know, like, so i t's really fun. Like part of it, this i s really fun b eing competitive. And like, you know, you enjoy your surroundings w ith friends, especially if it's a team environment a nd you create some bonds and know that that's the best part of it, especially for something like league.

Gavin : 11:30

My motto is since I ever started playing the game and I ever started playing with like, you know, full, full teams of people, rather than just playing by myself. Uh, the game is a completely different game when you're playing with five people. Then when you're playing by yourself, uh, communication is such a major role in a game like that in any competitive game to where the difference between, you know, knowing your fellow players and being able to communicate them and what you want to do on a second by second basis to where you kind of have to, when you're playing by yourself, you know, and anticipate or predict what your, fellow players are going to do on your team without really knowing anything. I I'm of the big opinion that, that, you're almost at that point, just not even playing the same game.

Chewy: 12:09

It really is different b ecause like c all i t s olid cube b ecause y ou're playing alone a nd w ith team environment, y ou c an trust h is teammates when w e're playing. It's a little, it's just like, can I really trust this guy doing this at all? Probably not. And the ended up creating whole different problems within the game. So then like, I definitely enjoy playing in a team the environment one cause like you have that trust where you can really just rely on your teammates and know that's the best part of it. And like just want people to join e-sports, especially if it's a team game, it's like, you can get more friends, especially if you don't have many friends i college, you can create whole new friends and the e-sports program. And this don't for me, like me, my college experience, I was pretty much a shut in my last l ike year. I'm a fifth year. So then joining e-sports created a lot more friends for me, you know what this is for me, you know?

Rachel : 12:57

That's awesome. I love to hear that. Did either of you play physical sports growing up at all or even just for fun?

Gavin: 13:04

Through high school. I was the, I played for my high school soccer team in my junior and senior year. I was the captain of our junior varsity team. Uh, so I definitely have that, you know, competitive sports background, so to speak to where I've, you know, kicked balls into goals for a good solid seven years. I definitely have been there. So I know kind of what a healthy team dynamic would look like when I kind of approached e-sports sports. And I kind of tried to manage it in a similar way that I did with my soccer team, because it's, you know, in the end it might be a different, you know, way that you're performing, but it's still, you know, a team atmosphere and team all about team cohesion.

Chewy: 13:45

So, um, for me, I was part of a dance group. Um, welcome to the sport button. We compete across state. O. So we will know trusting your friends and everything. He knows it's been other team environments, but it's through the competitions, like yeah, brings up adrenaline. I loved the adrenaline.

Rachel : 14:05

Yeah. And I played volleyball growing up. And I definitely know what you're talking about. The team dynamic and being able to rely on your teammates and trusting them if, if I'm doing something just at all by myself and maybe this is just a personality flaw that I have, but I think it's generally universal. If, if someone's even just with me or next to me, or is doing the thing with me, I feel so much more confident and excited. And I I'm stronger when I'm with other people. And it's kind of like the, you know, a bunch of little threads make up a strong rope. And that's what that makes me think of. And when I first heard about e-sports debuting at Stout a couple of years ago, um, when I was speaking with the founders of it here I was so confused because I just did not think that video game, like I just was so oblivious to the possibility of video game teams. And I thought it was just purely recreational. And so obviously it can definitely be beneficial, make friends, teach you about, you know, responsibility and teamwork. So yeah, that is very impressive to me. Someone who did not grow up playing video games at all, I spent a lot of time outside and fantasy worlds or, you know, drawing or writing bad poetry.

Pam: 15:26

As someone who did play video games in my youth.,Tell me, how do you handle the pressure of having an audience is as you're playing?

Gavin : 15:39

This last season, I would say it's, it's a lot different because I feel like it would be way, you know, more pressured if we were all like in the lab or the arena to where we all can see each other. And we know that we're playing a game, that means something. But for me personally, I definitely had a big disconnect because of COVID because we were all playing remotely. We wouldn't even really see each other face to face. We were all, you know, in a, in a Discord call to where we, that was how we communicated with each other. So it's still kind of, to me, felt like it was like really any other game. Obviously I knew that it wasn't, so it added a little bit, but there was still kind of the,disconnect from being able to interact and see the thing actively to where it's not so far outside of the normal, if that makes sense.

Chewy: 16:27

I'll say, even though it's like no audience, like I know we've been playing through live screens. Um, I think w whereas this is electronically. We don't really notice it at all because we're just playing the game, honestly. Um, but then like say if it was like the pro setting where if there was actual audience, then I think it'd be a whole different story because you have to perform because you're there in person so s ee your reactions or o thers for us in the world, l ike remotely sold. They don't see u s. It would be much more different than when there is an audience though.

Rachel : 17:00

Do you plan on hosting any live audience?

Gavin : 17:04

I think that is i n t he cards, that was definitely something that we wanted to do during, obviously this last year, we were planning on, you know having one of the theaters here at Stout and putting up the games on there and having a live audience and everything for the games that we were participating i n. COVID obviously put a damper on that, but that is hopefully something that at least I'm hoping for and trying to push for as well as the est of the entirety of the youth sports organization in terms of garnering more of a Stout audience, as well as a local audience for these games that a lot of our players are super passionate about. So that is hopefully something that w ill be coming to a place near you soon.

Rachel : 17:42

So Gavin, do you play, or do you just coach, how does that balance?

Gavin : 17:47

I, so technically, obviously on my downtime, I play a lot, uh, whenever, whenever I'm not coaching or whatever, I don't have any other obligations. I still love to play the game. So I'll play with my friends, I'll play with the players and all that to make sure that both, I understand what's going on in the game so that I'm not just, you know, talking BS to all of my players about, oh, this is really good, but I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. Uh, no, I'm actually, you know, playing it myself. So most of the time during practice, I am, I'm completely hands-off. I will go through, you know, there's a champion select before you even get into the game to where you pick, pick your characters and before you, you load in. So I hope the team, you know, design, you know, what champions are good, where what has good, match-ups what the team composition will look like, and I'll walk them through that. But basically I follow by what the professionals do to where I can go through that entire pick band phase and all that. And then the second that they actually load into the game, I can no longer talk to my players whatsoever. So I have to basically mute my mic. And I cannot say anything for the entirety of all the games happening. And the second the game's over, I obviously can, you know, do a post game like, well, how do you think that went? What, what went wrong? What went well? And that kind of thing. But during the games, generally, I am completely muted. And I do not say anything,

Rachel : 19:07

But I think of like a, like a game on a field, you can call it. Can you call a time out or anything

Gavin : 19:15

In the pros you can, I think in collegiate, you also can, technically to coach can't call it. It usually has to be a player that's calling it. And it has to be for some sort of issue, whether that's, you know, like their keyboard isn't working or their mouse isn't working, or there's a glitch within the game or any, anything like that. Uh, but me as a coach, technically once the game starts, I'm completely hidden.

Pam: 19:38

So let's talk, what do you see the future of e-sports maybe not just at UW-Stout, but in general. I mean, they're growing, we all know that that it's a growing, growing sport, but where do you see it going? I want to hear your predictions.

Gavin : 19:51

Uh, I mean, at this point, from what I've seen so far with, you know, the, the limited capacity that was this last year, I mean, I think the sky's the limit. I think you can add more games. You can garner more audience and by garnering more audience, you'll garner more player, potential players that'll want to play for you, which in turn can, you know, open up for us to have multiple teams and not necessarily just one have multiple coaches as we progress and continuously build up. I, I don't see why there's any reason that the e-sports or can't, you know, have their own complete stadium and all these other things, just like any other sport would. So I feel like me personally, that's, that's my goal that I want to kind of push us in that direction to show, you know, everyone else that, you know, e-sports can be just as good as any other sport. It's not necessarily about, you know, all these, you know, hand, foot, body tackle kids or whatever. Like you can be behind a keyboard and mouse or behind a controller, and you are still interacting and playing with the team in the exact same way. And I would like to see and hope that it can be pushed to the exact same level that all of those other more mainstream quote unquote sports are.

Chewy: 20:59

Um, I have a different point of view though. I mean, I agree with Gavin's stuff, but I think for me, I view e-sports through what's on top of media right now. This is a for me, how I view games is like when a new game comes out and does very good of course, and the on top, but all these games we're playing at the moment though, like 10, like League of Legends Rec league and Overwatch, I think over time, they are going to slowly die down just because they're old games. Um, so eventually this new game though, that's probably going to be the best new game through the playlist, you know, but it's, it's kind of like stocks. Yeah. Let's see if something for the good, it was really good. That's going to stay up there. If it's died down, it might die down later we'll see what happens. But, u m, the future is m ore s till, I think, of course i t w ill still be there, but just g oing to be like a roller coaster.

Gavin : 21:47

Yeah. t'll definitely e-sports is one thing. Unlike, you know, normal sports to where it is constantly evolving and more than likely it will continue to evolve because games are continuously being patched and changed and different character levels are becoming more powerful, less powerful, new games are being released that, you know, players can play and interact with and you can build teams around of. So it's, it's kind of an ever evolving kind of landscape. So that to me gives me even more promise because you know, a brand new game could get released that has a, is perfect and primed and ready for an e-sports to be developed out of it. And, uh, you know, it might not even be released yet. So the amount of possibilities that are, you know, there are almost endless and excited to see where it can lead.

Chewy: 22:35

I'll tell you why I want t his. I want to see a VR e-sports. Wow. I was g oing

Pam: 22:40

I was going to ask that because that would be absolutely phenomenal. Yeah.

Gavin : 22:44

Because that'd be actually bringing in like actual like movements create like exercise and everything. And I was like, wow.

Pam: 22:49

Yeah. Wow. So do you train for e-sports and if so, what do you do?

Rachel : 22:55

And I was, maybe you can say that, answer that question in conjunction with my question. I was going to ask, how do you prepare, like it's the day of a game? Or do you call it a game? I don't know. And so you're you're what do you do to prepare that day? Like leading up to it? So I figured those are kind of similar questions.

Gavin : 23:13

Um, my philosophy usually is that, uh, I have, at least in the past, what I've done is I've had all the players, you know, get together and play one or two games that weren't actual competitive matches to kind of, I kind of as hand warmers to make sure that they're all ready to ready to go. And in the, in the same head space of, of playing the game. And then, uh, if I did everything the way that I wanted to do it, we'd have like one or two hand warmers and then we'd go straight into discussing like our pick band phase and what we wanted to do in terms of the actual characters that we're going to select what we think the opponent will select and things like that. And a lot of that is determined both by, you know, what we've been playing. What's strong in the game right now, as well as, you know, scouting the opponent, what does the opponent play? What are they good at? And, you know, kind of figuring that kind of thing out. And then we kind of go straight into to, you know, picking our characters and going into the first game. And then between every single game, we kind of do a reflect to like, what went well, what didn't go well, and then we kind of adapt to based on that. Uh, but yeah, I mean, in terms of, you know, summing it all up, I like my players to play, you know, one or two warm up matches, then we discuss our strategy in the game and then we kind of just go straight into it, which is what I feel like a lot of mainstream sports also do.

Rachel : 24:28

How do you do at Chewy? Is that similar? Do you have any rituals you do before a game?

Chewy: 24:33

I kind of just go into it, not scared at all. So I'm like, yeah, they're better than me. They're better than me, but not then yeah. Put, put them in the show was on top, you know,

Pam: 24:42

Is there a pretty good camaraderie between the different teams and the different competitors?

Gavin : 24:47

That is one thing because of COVID there hasn't so on, in full honesty, most of the teams so far have been kind of separated more or less because you practice with your team and you interact with them a lot, but we haven't had, or been able to have like a lot of, you know, e-sports parties or hangouts or whatever, to where we can really get to know each other. Uh, I personally am actually pretty close with the Rocket League team because my roommate is actually a player on the Rocket League team. So I've had the Rocket League team guys over to my house and we've, you know, hung out and all that kind of thing. So I know them pretty well, but in terms of like the Overwatch team, I don't necessarily interact with them a ton, which is obviously something that we want to change moving forward. That is one thing that we're pushing really hard for is that we want the e-sports to be a whole program to where everyone knows everyone. And we're all kind of, you know, buddy, buddy kind of thing. and that's, that's what we hope we can move towards. U h, but currently because of COVID and all the other restrictions, it hasn't necessarily been the case as much as I would like it to.

Rachel : 25:48

So how many people are on the League of Legends team and the other two teams?

Gavin : 25:55

So the league of legends team, if you exclude me as the coach, we have this season nine rostered players, I believe, uh, Overwatch, I believe has enough players sothey can roster two teams. So they have, I think at least 12 and then rocket league was six players this last year, but I think we had enough talent and enough people interested to where I think we have nine players. Now,

Rachel : 26:22

My roommate plays rocket league. And Pam, have you ever seen a Rocket League clip of it being played? Do I have not? Is so cool. Someone once asked me, I don't know why they asked me what rocket thing was, but I said, I kind of know because I watched my roommate play and it's like soccer, but with cars, is that accurate? Y

Gavin : 26:48

You're in a big dome. You're driving around a little car and you're having a soccer ball that's like twice the size of your car and you're hitting it back and forth and trying to score goals.

Rachel : 26:59

And these cars can like jump. I mean, it's so cool. It's really fun to watch. I'm not in to video games. I mean, it is just, it's just fun to watch. Like even if you're not into sports, something weird happens when you're like around other people that also like sports and you're watching it and the team you just kind of, you know, join with one side, you just start cheering. It's infectious. That's how it was for me with rocket league. So I'm very excited to be one of the, the audience members watching this year.

Pam: 27:32

Chewy dind of mentioned. Yeah. You know, sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. Is therepretty good sportsman, like conduct?

Chewy: 27:43

In the public scene yes.

Gavin : 27:43

You see, you know, in the face, if you're like on stream or whatever, most Of the time it's pretty good. There is definitely a handful of matches where I'm like, did you really need to say that? Like, that was not very nice to put it, you know, simply, but I mean, I feel like a lot of the players kind of know the drill because they've been playing the game, especially when you're playing in something like solo queue for League of Legends that is notoriously not necessarily a super, you know, friendly environment. So I feel like a lot of the players, because they've been playing the game that long have developed kind of a, a tough skin, due to a lot of that kind of thing. Not necessarily that it's good or that it's bad, but they kind of, you know, understand and like they've been there. So I'd say for all things considered, it is generally with most of the teams that we played for were or played against, uh, was, it was pretty good. Like you, when you load into the created matches, you have to load into for, for, uh, Cielo, which is the league that we compete in. You load into custom created by a Riot, which is the creator of League of Legends, uh, like custom games that they make specifically for tournaments, which is the same thing that the pros use to play their games. And when you load in, you have, you know, you have to figure out which player is on which side, and you have to kind of sort all that stuff out. And, um, there were many times before games where there's a joint chat between both of the teams and we would definitely banter back and forth with the other team about, you know, different things that were going on and this and that, and had a fun experience. So I would say overall, it was definitely positive. It wasn't necessarily always positive, but I would say it was, it was pretty good.

Pam: 29:19

So I'm listening to this and I'm a student, how do I join? Are there avenues for me to get involved? Tell them, tell them how.

Gavin : 29:27

Yeah. So a lot of that would be through discord. E-sports currently operates almost, not necessarily exclusively, but primarily through discord is where we have, all of our coaches are on it. All of our players are on it. That's where we post our updates on our games and all of that. That's where, you know, our administration is on there to, to, you know, resolve or give more information. So that would definitely be the area in which you would go through, you join the UW-Stout, e-sports discord, and you can contact me. You can contact the other coaches. You can contact Kyle, which is our administrator. Uh, and we can, you know, talk you through about, you know, are you interested in being a player? Are you interested in being more of a supporter in terms of, you know, to potential other production areas or, you know, advertising and marketing and all of that. And that is definitely something that we are looking to expand upon and push forward, going forward.

Rachel : 30:22

If someone was looking to become a player on the team, how would you advise them to prepare? How do they, you know, what do you tell? Cause there's it, you try out, right? So is there like a preparation that?

Gavin: 30:40

The biggest thing that I can say is it w it would be three things. It would be play the game more. You gotta, you gotta play the game. If you, a lot of the players that, especially that try it out. I don't think there was a single player that hadn't been playing the game for, like at least three years. Okay. Uh, obviously that's not a time requirement. That's not an explicit thing, but you want to make sure you're playing the game and you know what you're playing because the players who are playing there are coming to play and they're coming to win because they want to be on the team, uh, you know, be friendly. Uh, I, one of the biggest things that I look for, especially as a coach, when we're playing in the game is I want to make sure that all of the players are getting along. And if there's somebody specifically, who's kind of, you know, stirring up trouble or is not being very agreeable with a lot of the things that the team are doing, not necessarily as much of a team player as I would like. Uh, and then the other thing would be watch, like if there's pros for your game, watch what the pros are doing, figure out what the pros are doing and see if you can emulate any of what they're doing. Cause most of the time the pros know what they're doing. So, you know, if you can get experience and, or see what somebody better than you is doing and try to implement that within your own game. And it shows a lot in terms of your both personal development and your willingness to continue to develop sure.

Rachel : 31:55

Chewy, anything you'd like to add?

Chewy: 31:56

Probably just play for more people. Um, just like the playing solo queue. It's this is what it is and we're playing alone, but then the couple of mechanical skills, but then with people, it allows you to get used to a team environment.

Rachel : 32:09

Awesome. Well, maybe I should try out for, e-sports just see what happens now. I feel pretty prepared and knowledgeable. So I want to thank you both for joining us today and taking the time and just sharing all your wisdom and your experiences with us. So I hope you guys have a wonderful school year and thanks again for joining

Gavin : 32:29

Us. Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity that, uh, to come on here and talk to you guys. Thank you for

Pam: 32:36

Thank you for listening to Inside Stout, a podcast devoted to the stories of our students, faculty, staff, and campus community. We want to thank Chewy and Gavin for visiting with us today and talking about e-sports, please subscribe to the podcast and don't forget to tune in next time when we share even more stories that go Inside Stout.