High school students level up at NETC Esports Camp; Intramural esports returns fall semester

Cheraw High students Elijah Carraway, Dalton Ratliff and Roman Redfearn parachuted onto a Russian island in the Black Sea armed only with their fists and their wits while Tony Cummings, of Florence, duked it out amongst the Norse gods in the halls of Valhalla.

For their first try as a team, the Cheraw trio entered Player Unknown's Battleground stationed at Northeastern Technical College's video game room – Redfearn being the PC purist familiar playing on a keyboard guiding teammates Ratliff, the sharpshooter, and Carraway booting up the video game for the first time. PUBG, as it is commonly known, is a player v. player (or team v. team) shooter game in a battle royale format, or last man standing. It is a bit more realistic compared to cartoon-like competitor Fortnite which allows players to build obstacles as an added defensive feature.

Prior to PUBG and lunch time, the team dominated in a round of Fortnite with Ratliff dispatching the most opponents in the double digits; it was all in a typical Tuesday afternoon during NETC's annual esports summer camp July 17-19, which could be the first level in becoming an official Trailblazer esports athlete, or bragging rights among the student body should the high schoolers play intramural esports in the fall.

All four high school students are returning campers, and most are entering NETC as Dual Enrollment students allowing them to accumulate college credits while attending high school. As Dual Enrollment students, they are eligible to participate in NETC's Intramural Esports, said Esports Head Coach Tyler Nolan.

"Intramural esports isn't a full commitment but friendly competition among students," Nolan said. By comparison, official NETC Trailblazer Esports Athletes must be a full-time student maintaining at least a 2.0 GPA with at least 12 hours of credits per semester. Intramural athletes can be any student enrolled at NETC to include alumni, faculty, and staff.

NETC students participating in Intramural Esports have access to the NETC's esports game room as well as logging in off-campus, Nolan said. Game times are scheduled in the evenings making student v. student competition available, Nolan said.

"You're not penalized if you miss a week of playing intramural esports," he said.

NETC's high school esports camp gives students the experience of competitive gaming but also serves academic functions, Nolan said. Students learn about the non-playable aspects of the gaming industry such as game development and career paths along gaming strategies.

Since booting up at 9 a.m., Cummings was locked onto Brawlhalla, a 2D "king of the hill" fighting game with the winner declared by knocking the opponent off a combat platform.

"I started playing Brawlhalla in 2018 a little bit but as I got better, I became dedicated," Cummings, 15, said.

Ratliff's top games are Fortnite, Call of Duty, and driving game The Crew 2. Redfearn plays "anything and everything" but does prefer fighting games like Smash Bros and Tekken.

"I don't have a choice game, but I do like JRPGs, platforms and shooters," said Carroway, who enjoys the social aspect of esports being able to play games with friends in person NETC's game room provides.

Ratliff is considering attending Winthrop University majoring in information technology; Redfearn has not decided which college he wants to enter after graduating high school, but he is interested in computers and animation; Cummings wants to become a driver for FedEx; Carroway is undecided –give him time, he has not started his freshman year yet, he said.

For more information, visit online at www.netc.edu, select Student Resources in the top menu, select Athletics then click the NJCAA Esports logo and scroll down to NETC Esports Interest Form.

Trailblazer Esports can be viewed at www.twtch.tv/netcsports or through the Twitch app at NETC Esports.

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