Lincoln College Athletics to Add Esports

[December 14, 2018] 

Lincoln College Athletic Director Mark Perdue has announced that the department will add the collaborative online gaming activity known as esports as an officially sponsored club sport for the 2019-2020 season.

“Esports are a rapidly growing competitive option on college campuses across the country,” said Perdue. “We are excited to bring this opportunity to the students here at Lincoln College.”

In addition, Perdue has announced the hiring of local resident Chris Slaby to be the school’s first Esports Head Coach. Slaby, who is the assistant news director at WAND-TV in Decatur, brings a strong background in the world of online computer gaming to the task of starting a program from scratch.

“I am excited about the opportunity to get the esport program going at Lincoln College,” said Slaby. “I am looking forward most to building a team and the chance to mentor younger players in collaborative gaming.”

Photo from NACE promotion package

LC will soon be joining the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). According to the NACE website (nacesports.org), 116 institutions across the nation are part of the organization which is dedicated to “the positive development of esports programs at the collegiate level.”

NACE sanctions regular competitions and hosts a national championship event each year. In most sanctioned events, teams compete in tournaments with the winners receiving funds in the form of scholarship money. At the most recent NACE Championship event, over $100,000 scholarship funds were awarded to championship teams.

Lincoln will initially recruit players in order to enter teams in League of Legends and Smite esports events.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]