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College Of St. Joseph Presses Start On New 'Esports' Arena For Gamer Athletes

A member of the College of St. Joseph esports team during practice.
College of St. Joseph, Courtesy
A member of the College of St. Joseph esports team during practice.

As video games like League of Legends and Fortnite have grown in popularity, so have competitions involving these games. Now the College of St. Joseph in Rutland has added esports to its athletic roster, alongside the likes of soccer, basketball and volleyball. Despite the school's struggleswith enrollment and plans to avoid closure, the program has now added a new esports arena.

Head coach and esports director Chris Towle spoke with Vermont Edition about the team and the difference between collegiate-level competitive esports and students playing these games in their dorm.

"The large difference actually is the amount of energy and focus they put into the game," said Towle. "You're focusing more on the micro and macro plays in the game itself ... that lets you compete with some of the world's best players."

Listen to the interview with Towle above. Broadcast on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Ric was a producer for Vermont Edition and host of the VPR Cafe.
A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
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