Esports team earns first seed in Nationals

By Tiffany Morgan

After only 10 months of its establishment, the Eastern Wyoming College Esports team earned the first seed spot in nationals for Fortnite and the 2024 season.
The first round of nationals will take place all online, Sun., Dec. 8, at 5 p.m.
The qualifications for nationals occurred Dec. 2. EWC’s team record Monday night was 3-0 in about an hour and a half Twitch stream provided by Esports coach Caleb Spitzer.
The qualifications for nationals took 32 Esports teams to determine who would earn a national spot. It is now down to eight teams, with Lancers Ryder Tillard and Allen Woodard being the first seed; facing Laramie County Community College.
Spitzer said after their Sunday night, it will determine if they advance on the bracket.

The biggest challenge Spitzer and his team are looking to adapt to is the best way to best deal with vehicles in-game. The second is Spitzer’s uncertainty on the skill level they could be up against, although Spitzer said LCCC is fair competition to begin with.
Spitzer and his team are, of course, taking a closer look at the map locations for strategy. Another waythe Esports team prepares for a big competition is spending time playing other games.
The biggest advantage the team has had to prepare is team member Tillard is ranked “Unreal,” which only 0.2 percent of Fortnite’s 3.8 million players achieve.

“We have an advantage [other players might not have],” Spitzer said.
The spring season for Esports begins Feb. 14, but Spitzer said once the students get back on campus after the holiday season, he is looking forward to new team members in addition to his Fortnite duo. There is one student ready to play Madden and three for Mario Kart.

The second round of matches will take place Dec. 9 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. For more information, contact Caleb Spitzer at cspitzer@ewc.wy.edu.