A projector screen located in the Stephens College’s Student Union of Stamper Common shows gunshots, deadly duels, and superpowers.
These images don’t come from a television show or a movie, but instead from the eSports game “Overwatch,” an online, team-based, first-person shooter video game.
The team has two coaches, Ernest Utterback and Nicholas Salamoney. Both coaches are members of the IT department at Stephens and play “Overwatch.”
“I saw it as an opportunity to give Stephens and women in eSports a larger role than what they’ve had,” Utterback said about becoming a coach. “There is a lot of debate about the competitiveness of women in eSports, and I know it’s blatantly false that women are any less competitive.”
Stephens had made efforts to protect its players from sexism — harassment specifically — during eSports matches. The Stars play in a separate location from where the gameplay is shown, and their identities are protected from outsiders. Instead, they go by their gaming usernames.
The Stars played their second match of the season Monday night against Georgia Southern University and lost in two rounds.
The matches are set up in a best-of-three format, and the team that loses the first round gets to select the style of game the second round will be. “Overwatch” features four different game styles: assault, control, escort, and hybrid.
For the first round, Stephens and Georgia Southern squared off in an assault-style game. In assault, there is an attacking and defending team, and the attacking team’s goal is to capture two different points on the map.
The second round was a control-style contest, which is also played in a best-of-three format. In control, the teams clash to capture a certain area on the map and, once captured, hold that area until it is 100 percent theirs. Once that is accomplished, the team wins the round.
Although Stephens lost Monday’s match, it has made leaps and bounds since coming together in September.
Utterback said the communication during Monday’s match was 100 percent better than last week’s match against Kansas Wesleyan and has been growing exponentially since the beginning of the season — when many of the girls didn’t even know one another.
More than anything, the coaches and players are having fun building the program and sparking interest in eSports.
“My favorite part has been not just the players that were brand new to ‘Overwatch’, but brand new to even the concept of gaming,” Utterback said. “Helping them embark on the journey and start to gain those skills and abilities, and seeing their enthusiasm in those moments where they start to say,’Oh my gosh, now I get it, now I understand.’”
Salamoney added that the team would like to grow and get the word out about the program. He and Utterback work with social media and Twitch, a live-streaming website, to gain exposure.
The Stars have a match at 6 p.m. every Monday for the rest of the month, and each match will be shown at the Student Union inside Stamper Common.
