BUCKHANNON, West Virginia – West Virginia Wesleyan College’s ESports Team proudly hosted the first-ever in-person event of the West Virginia Scholastic Esports League last month, bringing together 140 students from schools across the state as they vied for the top spots of the season’s competitions.

Players took the stage in Overwatch, Super Smash Bros., Brawlhalla, Apex Legends, and Valorant, allowing them to experience competition more in line with a traditional athletic outing. Students were able, for the first time, to meet other players they had faced from across the state and share in a celebration of their passion for the game and a mutual love of pizza, according to WVWC head coach Ethan Hayes.    

Chase Jarrell of Ravenswood High School said, “This event was absolutely wonderful. Coach Hayes and the Wesleyan team did an incredible job hosting and making the event feel like the pinnacle of our season. Meeting all the other coaches and their players from around the state was worth the trip alone. I’m very much looking forward to the next edition!”

The event’s winners included Super Smash Bros., Hedgesville High School; Brawlhalla, Brooke High School; Apex, Ripley High School; Overwatch, Webster County High School; and Valorant, Brooke High School.

In Fall 2024, schools participating in the WVSEL took strides to create an environment that allowed students to participate and belong while also allowing them to pursue scholarship opportunities from the multiple colleges in West Virginia and beyond supporting esports. 

The LAN (or in-person event) was limited to games with a collection of at least eight constantly competing teams; other titles were given online tournaments to continue their season. Buckhannon-Upshur High School was the top team this season with a clean sweep through both brackets, a competitor took Madden2024 from Hedgesville, and lastly, with Siege brackets, both Wirt County High and Hedgesville were able to trade off undefeated brackets. These teams and students worked tirelessly to hone their skills and perfect their communication to overcome the difficulties of their first LAN and place themselves as the top contenders of the WVSEL. 

This event was a first for the WVSEL, and this occasion marked a first for Wesleyan’s newly founded esports media team. Students could oversee and assist with all aspects of the tournament production pipeline. Coach Hayes said, “I am incredibly proud of my students. For their first event to be large enough to accommodate 140 students while still controlling most errors is a massive undertaking. When we started, I told my students that this would be the best and worst event they’d ever done, and they sure went out of their way to set the bar incredibly high for them in the future.”

With the success of this event, WVWC esports plans to extend its scholarship efforts into roles such as graphic design, media production, and color commentating.

“We need talented students willing to spearhead this effort and help improve upon future events,” Hayes added. 

WVWC Esports hopes this will be the first of many events brought to the students of West Virginia and our community. “This is one of those things that just seems silly not to do,” Hayes said; by committing to assist in creating a place for esports to be done at this scale, not only do we ensure the longevity of our program through fostering relations, but we also get to know that these budding programs can save their efforts for growth within their counties allowing for a stronger gaming community as a whole in the state.”

WVWC is committed to creating and ensuring an environment where esports is sustainable and growing for years to come. Please get in touch with us if you or someone you know may be interested in participating in collegiate esports, starting a scholastic esports program at your school, or sponsoring. Coach Hayes can be reached at 409-679-1033 or through email at hayes.e@wvwc.edu.