Liberal, KS – Spring turns to Summer Competition

The National Junior College Athletic Association Esports went on spring break last week and no matches were generated for any tier of competition. The League also issued a statement on the continuation of the spring season and transitioning to the summer.

“We’ll be moving ahead the opening/start date of Summer Series. Instead of starting on the week of April 28th, T3 Summer Series will start on April 15th instead!” NJCAAE Administrator Coach Faust said. The Spring season for T3 competition was originally planned to continue for two more weeks, then into the playoffs before going into summer.

When asked about the changes, Faust said, “The point of T3 is engagement, not championships. Teams have the choice where and when they play.” The NJCAAE separates teams into levels of competition based on how long the individual program has been running. SCCC, since this is the first year of competition, were required to join into the T3 series, what is called the Open Series. The Tier 2 level is for schools who have had an esports program for at least one year or longer and is called the Contender Series. The final Tier of competition, T1, is called the Premier Series and is for those established schools who play at the highest levels of competition. “I was pretty disappointed when I heard about the changes for this spring. My team was ready to get a few more matches under their belt before the semester ended. In some of the conversations that have come out after the fact, the NJCAAE is still learning how best to navigate the relatively new area of esports and how best to serve all schools involved,” Coach Volden said. “We will still be playing a few games for the next 3 weeks or so, but not with the intensity of the Fall or Spring season.”

The league has reduced the number of titles available for Summer competition. The Saints will have the option to play Fortnite, Smash Brothers, Overwatch, COD Gunfight, Mario Kart, Rocket League, and Valorant. The days and times of the competitions remain unchanged. “We’ll keep at it until students go home for the Summer. This was our first year fielding an esports team and I am extremely proud of how well we’ve done across all our game titles. My people have worked hard all year and we’re really looking forward to next semester. Some of the teams are wanting to move up to T2 for the Fall and we’re really excited about that,” Coach Volden said.

When matches are streamed, you can find them here: https://www.youtube.com/@sewardcountysaints1973/streams