UO is world renowned in track and field, ranked No. 1 in the country for football and recently made a big move to the Big Ten Conference. But UO also has a rich diversity of programs outside of athletics, including but not limited to esports.
Senior marketing major Jackson Zyskowski is the team manager for all of UO’s Valorant teams. The teams are divided into three: Green, Yellow and White. Zyskowski played on UO Green his first three years at UO until he decided to take a step back from competing and become the team’s manager.
“I’m very passionate about esports, obviously coming from a player standpoint, I love esports. So it’s just a way that I can stay involved without playing,” Zyskowski said.
As team manager, Zyskowski is in charge of scheduling matches, booking scrims for all of the teams and booking the Esports Lounge on campus. For UO Green, Zyskowski says he likes to take on more of a coaching role using his experience as a former player. “It’s pretty easy. They do all the hard work,” he said.
One of the players “doing all the hard work” is junior business administration major Chase Cohen, UO Green’s in-game leader and controller player. Cohen joined the Valorant team last year as a JV UO Yellow player. This year is his first year on UO Green, and he will be playing as team captain.
“I played baseball growing up my whole life, and so the team environment and competitive nature is deep, deep rooted inside of me,” Cohen said “I have to get it out somehow, so it’s kind of fun to be able to do that playing a video game.”
Fall term is the busiest season for the Valorant teams. While all of the teams are expected to put in time commitment, about four days a week, UO Green takes on a larger role than its sister teams.
“Normally we try to do on average four days a week and four hours of practice,” Zyskowski said. “Today’s a little bit different, we had a match at 10 a.m. and then our last match today is gonna be at like 7 p.m. We’re probably going to be here for 11 hours today so it’s definitely a big time commitment, especially for the Green Team.”
Right now, the UO Green is playing in Big Ten events with playoffs at the end of the season. Additionally, the team will compete in several other tournaments like CECC – the Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup.
“We played Oregon State which made for a really fun environment of people coming together to watch the game because it’s OSU vs UO,” Cohen said.
For the players, the competitive nature from in person sports doesn’t just disappear, making esports a great way to socialize and compete at a collegiate level.
“I love having a way to play with a group of guys, to get to know a group of guys over a shared common interest,” Cohen said. “So we’re really just trying to make the most out of it as this fun social experience and get together to play this game. And I think the opportunity the esports program provides is really f*cking awesome for that.”
