Olivet’s Division 2 Beat Saber Esports Team has gained a reputation as a force to be reckoned with!
Esport athletes in Olivet Nazarene University’s junior varsity Beat Saber team took first place in their first ever match against 10 other universities competing in Division 2 of the Collegiate Virtual Reality Esports League (CVRE League).
After having a bye in the first round of the double elimination tournament, Olivet was undefeated in each round against University of Tennessee – Martin, Tennessee Technological University, and twice against UC Berkeley Ursa Major. Although many esport athletes faced challenging songs within the Beat Saber game, a challenging collection of opponents, and even several technical issues with live streams and Virtual Reality (VR) tracking, the team still had an exciting match that had coaches, players and spectators gripping the edge of their seats.
Representatives of Olivet’s Division 2 Beat Saber team, Ryan Hemsteger, Micaela Leavitt, and Brandon Smith, took home their first tournament win using HTC Vive and Oculus Rift VR setups as they competed for seven straight hours in Olivet’s newly created Esports Arena. The arena is located next to McHie Arena in the front entrance of the Parrott Convocation Center. Led by Coach Deanna Mize, and supported by Zachary Poucher and Eric Serpe (members of the varsity Beat Saber team), streaming and social media support by Mike Szostek (Director of Esports), and encouragement from Coach Andy Mize (Overwatch) and Maurice Hutton (League of Legends), the team strategized song choices during the pick/ban phase, coordinated who would perform each song, and supported each other through gameplay challenges and various technical issues. Commentators from the CVRE League Twitch stream were blown away by the Olivet’s team, commenting that the players were quick to adapt to situations, entertaining with the Picture-In-Picture webcam on Olivet’s Twitch stream (http://twitch.tv/olivetesports) which features the player’s movements, and were able to remain cool under pressure. The team also exhibited great sportsmanship and congratulated each other after each victory with thunderous applause.
Coach Deanna Mize shared the following after the match:
“My team did so amazing and I am so proud of them. I loved watching them interact, building each other up throughout the event. I truly felt we had a team and not just individuals playing each round. I may have been directing them with the lineup while staying in contact with the competition directors, but they were the stars who swept the competition away. There were some teams forfeiting throughout the competition…I am so proud to have a team with the skill level and no fear to go for our victory.”
The CVRE League is a student-run organization that is host to 13 universities in their third season of competition. Universities such as Stanford, Baylor, Clemson, UC Berkeley, Texas A&M, and more compete in VR game titles. Popular VR games played by universities in the CVRE League include Beat Saber, a rhythm-based game (similar to Guitar Hero) that features laser swords that players use to slash at blocks to the rhythm of music tracks, and Echo Arena, a simulated zero-gravity sport where players try to score goals with a virtual frisbee, while simultaneously trying to knock the frisbee out of opponents’ hand to claim it themselves.