Shaikha Almawlani
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne Gamers Guild hosted an Overwatch tournament Friday in the Campus Center Ballroom.
Overwatch, an online first person shooter game, involves two teams that battle each other for victory by accomplishing a specific objective. Each match takes place in a small simulated environment, such as ancient Egypt or Imperial Japan.
It has quickly become one of the most popular games since its release last year.
“Overwatch is one of the biggest upcoming games and is becoming very popular,” said Jeffrey Chun, event coordinator and sophomore business administration major.
Senior history major Jack Bowman, founder and president of the Gamers Guild, said the idea of this event came to him after noticing students’ inclination towards the online game.
“When Overwatch launched in May, it was huge on campus,” Bowman said. “The art style is very much pixaric. It was like Pixar, the video game with guns and violence, and everybody loved it. We had a big following on campus and it just naturally came in as an event.”
Daniel Alvarez, freshman undeclared major, said he has been playing Overwatch for about seven months.
“The events are a lot of fun, and are always well planned out by the gaming club committee,” Alvarez said. “They’re just really fun times with a lot of cheering and great company.”
Attendees were advised to register either as a viewer or gamer upon arriving to the event and participants were then divided into matches.
“We wanted to make a tournament that everyone could enjoy, but we also wanted to make it fair,” Chun said. “Participants are asked to register right here and right now, so that you don’t actually know who you are playing to avoid unfair advantages.”
Twitch, an online streaming platform, and Tespa, the leader in collegiate e-sports, sponsored this event.
“They essentially offer us goodies and prizes and branding opportunities to put on events and engage in the community,” Bowman said. “Thanks to them, we get to do this event, get to have fun and get to give stuff out.”
For this tournament, the sponsors offered limited edition art by developers and Gunnars Optiks gaming glasses for the winners.
“We’re giving out Overwatch themed prizes,” Bowman said. “We have art made by the developers, it is limited print, 1 of 250 canvas prints, and a pair of gunnars, and yellow tinted gaming glasses to prevent eye strains.”
Gamers Guild events are open to everyone at the University.
“Anybody can come, it is not just for clubbies,” Chun said. “Our club is for everyone on campus.”
Shaikha Almawlani can be reached at shaikha.almawlani@laverne.edu.
