FREMONT, Ohio — It's a growing trend across the country, and Terra State Community College is now the latest local college to offer competitive esports to students.
Terra State Community College has hosted club-level esports for a few years now, allowing students to play competitive video games with their fellow students.
But now, under the athletic department umbrella, the college has launched full esports teams that will compete nationally in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
"There's that barrier to entry there that hasn't really quite lowered yet until high schools and colleges start building labs and picking it up." said Adam Dirnberg, current student and assistant esports coach for Valorant
Dirnberg is ranked in the top 1 percent of Valorant players, and has been hired as an assistant coach.
He said people are still surprised to hear how popular this multi-billion-dollar competitive gaming industry is.
"It's treated like a real sport now, it's not like your old school Nintendo or Sega Genesis or anything," Dinberg said.
Currently Terra will host teams for Super Smash Bros, Valorant, and Rocket League, and will be adding Overwatch soon, with more games to come next semester.
Along with sharpening their competitive gaming skills against their teammates and skilled players around the world, these students also will have direct connections to a scholarship esports program in our area.
With a transfer pipeline already established between Terra and Tiffin University, Terra players will be on a fast track to try out for the TU scholarship team.
"So that way you can come in and say 'I'm very interested in this game and learning more about this game' And then you can work your way up from there," Dinberg said.
"They can come here, play, get the skills they need and then move on to Tiffin to continue their four years from there," said Michael Daigneault, head esports coach.
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