Lamar University’s League of Legends Esports team won a victory over Southern Methodist University in the team’s first competitive matchup during an online tournament.  The team of five students from LU played the popular computer game League of Legends in a best two-out-of-three, 5v5 format.  The Cardinals, who played online at the LU campus, won the opening game, lost the second game and won the third game in the set to

win the tournament 2-1. 

Tournament scores and rankings for Cardinals Esports and other collegiate teams are posted on the popular Esports website Collegiate Starleague (www.cstarleague.com).  Cardinals Esports is currently 1-1 for the season, which saw opening games played on Oct. 19.  The LU group experienced its first loss against Texas A&M University in an Oct. 19 matchup in the game Counterstrike.  

Team members are made of up of LU students, who are members of the Lamar University student organization Cardinals Esports.  The organization, one of the newest on the LU campus, was established in early October.  Cardinals Esports President Zach Mosteller, a senior computer science major, began the group specifically to compete in Esports.  Mosteller joined with freshman computer science majors Allie Duerler and Jamal Watts to form the group.  Dr. Tim Roden, associate professor of computer science, agreed to serve as faculty advisor.  Within a week, the new organization had recruited enough members to begin planning competitive tournaments. 

Lamar University League of Legends Team Captain, Tommy Nguyen, was happy about the victory against SMU but acknowledged the team has only four regular members and is actively looking for a solid player in the fifth slot.  The team used a fill-in player during the match against SMU Friday.

“We desperately need a top laner who can keep up with us,” Nguyen said.  “I am prepared to teach anyone to try to get them at our level.”

The LU student group has hosted meetings on campus to recruit students and plans to do more. 

Interested students can email Roden at troden@lamar.edu for information about joining Cardinals Esports and participating in competitive events.

The Lamar Esports group currently has multiple teams training for several games including League of Legends, Counterstrike, Super Smash Bros., Rainbow Six, Rocket League and Overwatch.  The group has a university hosted website and a dedicated Discord channel for real-time communication.

Esports is a form of competitive sports using popular online computer games.  Among the games used to compete in Esports, League of Legends tops the list.  Mosteller was ecstatic about the Lamar University win against SMU.

“League of Legends is the quintessential Esports game,” explained Mosteller.  “To many people, League of Legends is Esports.”

Faculty advisor Tim Roden is also very proud of the group. 

“League of Legends is a very complex game that requires weeks and even months of training to be good, ”Roden said.  “Winning our first League of Legends tournament tells me that Lamar University has what it takes to compete regionally, nationally and even internationally.”

Roden’s message to both current and prospective students is Cardinals Esports is a new and vibrant student organization actively looking for more members.  To help get Esports off the ground at LU, Roden worked with the Computer Science Department and the College of Arts and Sciences to make lab space available for training and competitions, including a computer lab in the Maes building equipped with the latest Dell Alienware computers. 

“We have a great lab for Esports,” Roden said.  “If you want to compete in Esports and represent LU, we are going to support you.”