-Trisha Kangas
Back in June, The National Association of Collegiate Esports hosted its annual convention, during which many players and coaches were awarded impressive titles for their hard work and achievements over the course of the year.
Boise State’s own Nick “Shifty” Travis was named Overwatch coach of the year.
“It was such a surprise that I won it. There are a lot of great coaches out there!” When asked what the biggest factor was in achieving this title Travis said, “I hope that a major factor was me having a major impact on the players that I coached to where they not only felt like they were improving at the game, but also enriched their collegiate experience at Boise State in a positive way.”
Much like any other sport, the initial leap and challenge that a player takes on when onboarding to a team can be overwhelming, but he appreciates being able to assist players in their journey by helping them find a place on the team, settle into a team’s distinctive identity, and work through their obstacles together.
“When everything you teach them starts to come together and the team starts to click and do things that they never could earlier in the semester to the point where you may wonder yourself how they got so good, that’s my favorite moment.”
College students are learning life and career skills via a gaming team environment. Such skills have previously been solely associated with conventional team sports and clubs.
“There are many people who can benefit from working together in a team, but aren’t interested in things like traditional sports—Overcoming challenges with teammates to accomplish common goals while working together at something they are passionate about, improving not only as players, but socially as people as well,” Travis said.
Students are also living a unique moment in history. COVID-19 has offered many challenges to virtually every aspect of their college experience. However, esports provides a platform that many other sports and campus groups are unable to.
“In particular, in the wake of COVID, it helps keep people together and involved even if they aren’t there physically,” Travis said.
Boise State, and Travis at the coaching helm, have big plans for what’s to come in the future of esports, “Short term, I’d like to help Boise State win some more championships. We won the Mountain West Championship in 2019 and I’d like to win it again, but I’d also like to make a big splash in other tournaments as well.”
Although esports has certainly made huge gains in viewership and participation over the last several years, Travis has set his sights on shooting for the stars, “Longer term, I’d like to help popularize esports in college even more and help make it something that college students both look forward to competing in, as well as watching and following.”