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Dallas College esports program is available to any student taking at least 12 credit hours, while maintaining a 2.0 grade point average.
Dallas College esports program is available to any student taking at least 12 credit hours, while maintaining a 2.0 grade point average.
Posted: Nov 10, 2022

Dallas College esports Bridges Gaming & Athletics

By Jim McCurdy

Aahil Ajani spotted a flyer on the wall at a Dallas College campus, and it struck a chord. He was always in to gaming. Why not give it a try while attending Dallas College?

Little did Ajani know in the first year Dallas College Athletics sponsored esports, he would find his way to the NBA 2K finals. Dallas College paved the way.

"It's an incredible experience," Aajani said. "If you really love gaming, and you have time in your week, take a couple hours, practice, get your work in, and really commit your time to it, I think you'll really have a lot of fun with it, too. I think it's a great opportunity for anybody who does it."

Dallas College's esports program entered its second year this fall, with students from each of the seven campuses eligible to compete in the 13 different esports titles, as long as they meet academic requirements of taking at least 12 credit hours per semester, while maintaining at least a 2.0 grade point average. Any student at Dallas College, whether in the high school dual credit, traditional or adult continuing education program, can compete in esports as long as they meet the academic requirements.

"I think the benefit of esports is it's very diverse," Dallas College Director of esports Krasi Kolarov said. "Having 13 different titles is pretty diverse. Titles means games, basically."

A student attending any of the Dallas College campuses can compete in any title offered at one of the district's seven campuses even if they are not taking classes there. Ajani is a perfect example. Last year, he was attending Dallas College Brookhaven, and competed for Dallas College Mountain View's NBA 2K team. This year, he is competing for Cedar Valley, while meeting at Dallas College El Centro's campus location. Currently, Dallas College fields teams for 10 of the 13 offered titles.

In its first year of existence, Dallas College attracted 56 eligible esports gaming students, five of which were 25 or older. That number has remained, in large part, the same to begin the second year, but efforts are being made to increase the participation numbers from all demographics, genders and age groups. The challenge has been that currently three coaches oversee the seven campuses, with each campus specializing in different titles, gaming categories or teams.

"The interest is huge," Kolarov said. "Right now we're limited on the manpower because we have three coaches managing seven campuses. That means each coach is managing four titles. If we had one coach for every campus, that (participation) number would go boom. That number would grow dramatically."

Sky McCort, a coach for three of Dallas College campuses, North Lake, Brookhaven and Richland, where she attended school, has seen a spike in interest over the past year. She is trying to help facilitate more growth.

"The Dallas College esports program, since last semester, has gained a lot of traction," McCort said. "It's growing quickly, and I think we're doing a great job of getting it together, and keeping it going."

Coupled with Dallas College's game design course options, the esports program goes hand in hand with students whose interests fit that mold.

"While you're a part of a team, you're learning how to go out in the real world with your degree programs, and work as teams there as well," McCort said. "The way I describe esports as a whole is family. We have all sorts of games, all sorts of interests, all sorts of players who come together, and they're excited to support their school to where their school's name goes out there to win competitions. It's traditional sports meets modern day students. That's how I view it. So we're giving people who maybe played football in high school … now they can play esports with Madden. They can take their knowledge from maybe participating in the traditional sport to participating in the electronic sport. Or we have students who have always played FPS, first person shooter, games or real time strategy games, and now they're moving from high school to college level competition."

But for the novice follower as to what esports is all about, there isn't one way to describe it because of the diversity of the titles. These games vary from interest to title to the individual versus team competitions. They differ from sports games to shooter's games. Dawson Hunter, Rainbow Six Seige's captain at North Lake who also competes on Richland's Overwatch team, likens the games he chooses to participate in as a transition from mano e mano gaming to teaming up with others to complete a mission.

"I would count Siege as more a team-based game," he said. "It's more of a 5v5, five versus five, game that's more of a realistic aspect. The real game, itself, when it first came out, was a terrorist versus counter-terrorist game. Right now, it's what you'd call operators versus operators. You have your certain abilities on each team, and you use those abilities on each team to defeat the other team."

And how does one team work cohesively to secure that win, all while operating on separate computers, you ask?

"A lot of issues come up from splitting up, and trying to do your own thing," Hunter said. "We'll really (buckle) down, and make sure we know exactly what each of us is doing. Everything comes together, whether you are, what you'd call a fragger, and get your kills on the other team or being a person that brings an intel. Everything all comes together, and needs to be put together to win."

Students can create opportunities to earn scholarships beyond Dallas College through esports. Some may possibly compete at national event sites in Atlanta or other cities. But on a competition-by-competition basis, most of the time, the gamers will not see their opponent. That's because, through the scheduling set up by eGeneration, the organization that essentially acts as a governing body for the collegiate gamers, esports participants are pitted against others through match pages, while gaming takes place in remote locations.

"Gaming, people play for fun, but even like in Fortnite, there's this 16-year-old kid named Bugha, and he won millions of dollars, just over gaming," Ajani said. "That really showed that young gamers like that can barely use a pedestal like that to make lots of money."

Of Dallas College's 10 fielded titles from the 13 offered, nine are ranked No. 1 in the country in their respective categories in the National Junior College Athletic Association esports rankings. With the esports playoffs beginning in two weeks, Dallas College esports teams are hoping to build off the success Mountain View and Ajani experienced in reaching the NBA 2K national stage during the program's first year.

"We have the students who are ranked pretty high," Kolarov said. "We have ability to win national titles."

Ajani, under coach Marcus Woodard's guidance at Mountain View last year, gave Dallas College a shot. Ajani is optimistic he may take it a step further in Year 2 as he competes for Cedar Valley's NBA 2K team, which is hoping for more growth.

"As far as growth from a Dallas College student perspective, I've seen an increase in interest from students in different game genres from last semester," Woodard said. "Even though I currently only have one player each for NBA and Madden, I had multiple students interested who actually signed up and went through the process of eligibility to compete in FIFA, Madden and NBA 2K. They just weren't eligible due to not having enough hours to compete this semester, so I'm hoping we will continue to see growth there. I've also noticed growth within the Generation Esports platform, with more colleges joining this semester, which could increase competition for all involved. That is always a good thing."

Hunter has been gaming for roughly 10 years. He started competing for Dallas College's esports program this year – his first as a student within the seven-campus district's system.

"The biggest thing that I've noticed is how welcome I feel into the program," Hunter said. "I feel like as soon as I joined, it's, 'You're welcome here.' It's what I call a great vibe. My definition of esports, to put it in simple terms, is competitive gaming. It can get extremely exciting. Being able to play games as a career sometimes, and also the excitement it brings during a tournament, possibly being on a stage, playing in front of thousands of people even, it becomes a very big thing as you go on."

That's the goal. One where when Dallas College wins on the big stage, it will certainly make the #DallasCollegeProud hashtag ring out for those in the school's gaming circles.

For now, the intent is to drive the esports program to higher participation numbers, all the while seeking championships. Part of that growth will be determined by how far the demographics reach within the Dallas College system. Mirabel Vakser, a sophomore at Dallas College, found out about esports this year after spending a year within the Dallas Metroplex community college system. Like Hunter, she competes in shooter games. She's drawn to games that call for technical and mechanical expertise.

"I think it's kind of just like playing any other sport," Vakser said. "You'll have a hobby of, let's say, playing basketball, and you'll want to do it competitively. That's kind of how it is for video games. You'll want to play it competitively.

"I feel like the esports team at Dallas College helps set us up if we want to continue with it in the future. It's mainly a thing for universities. I didn't think that Dallas College would even have an esports team. So when I found out that we do, it was like automatic, apply for it. It's been a great experience. I'm really glad that this is something that I'm doing. I'm really glad that I can represent Dallas College, even this (North Lake) campus."

Why wouldn't she or anyone else who's in to gaming?

"It is more than what people will say," Hunter said. "A lot of people will think of it as a little … you're on the computer gaming, but really, it builds a lot, whether it be from team building or whether it be from real world issues. A lot of it comes together a lot more, and shows more than what most expect."

Game on.