8/11/2019 Hamas Attacks, Universe 2014

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Expanding the meaning of student athlete through eSports

B y J O N A T H A N G U N S O N

Educational institutions

across the United States are

embracing a new group of student

athletes who dont use helmets,

balls or bats but favor headsets,

keyboards and gaming mice.

On June 11, Robert MorrisUniversity - Illinois became the

first American university to add

eSports, or competitive video

gaming, to its lineup of varsity

sports and hopes other schools

will follow its lead.

Were proud to be the first

school with this type of pro-

gram and look forward to see-

ing eSports grow in the coming

years, said Kurt Melcher, the

universitys associate athletic

director in charge of the eSports

program.

RMU recognizes the opportu-

nities for financial assistance,

social development and mental

stimulation available to its more

traditional athletes and sees its

new eSports program as a way to

make those same opportunitiesavailable to a group of students

who historically did not have

equal access to them.

The program will provide

scholarships and validation for

students at our university who

have traditionally been under-

served, Melcher said.

It gives more of them the

opportunity to develop pride in

their school and to gain a valu-

able extracurricular education.

This fall RMU will join the

Collegiate Star League, a com-

petitive collegiate eSports league

boasting competitive teams from

more than 100 colleges and uni-

versities in North America, with

the feeling that its unique com-

mitment to its eSports program

and athletes could lead to imme-diate success.

We want to be as competitive

as we can right off the bat, and

we hope we can attract students

who will help us do that in our

first year competing in college

eSports, Melcher said. Since we

announced the program a couple

of weeks ago, weve received well

over 1,000 emails from interested

gamers from all over who want

more information about our

school and the program. Now we

just have to sort through them all

to find the best fits.

The first game RMUs varsity

eSports team will be playing

is League of Legends, a free-to-

play online video game in which

two five-player teams compete

against each other to complete avariety of objectives and achieve

victory by completing all the nec-

essary objectives faster than the

opposing team.

We chose to start with League

of Legends because of its global

popularity and the sheer number

of people who actively play it,

Melcher said.

Today League of Legends is

played by more than 70 million

people worldwide and is cur-

rently the most-played video

game in the United States.

Professional League of Legend

games are also the most watched

eSport in the world today, with

last years professional League

of Legends World Championship

Series attracting more than 32million viewers.

To put that number in perspec-

tive, those are more people than

have watched any NBA Finals

or MLB World Series Game in

more than a decade, and more

viewers than tuned in to the

most-watched BCS National

Championship Game of all time.

And last year was only the thirdyear of the championship series.

ESports is a growing indus-

try, Melcher said. Were happy

to be involved.

Also happy to be involved in

eSports are students at the Uni-

versity of Utah, thanks to the

efforts of Rizwan Mohammed.

Mohammed, from Taylors-

ville, is a junior studying com-puter science at the University of

Utah. He has a love for League of

Legends and a desire to share it

with others.

When I got to school, I was

happy to find there were a ton

of people who enjoyed playing

League of Legends as much as

I did and some who were really

good, Mohammed said.

Encouraged by the number

of likeminded individuals he

discovered, Mohammed spear-

headed the formation of an offi-

cial League of Legends club

through the schools studentassociation, became the clubs

first president and worked with

the school and members of his

club to establish a competitive

club team.

It took a little work to get

the ball rolling, but its been an

amazing experience, Moham-

med said. My involvement with

League of Legends here has let

me help build a community here

in which people with similar

interests can come together to

build relationships and become

involved in something that gives

us pride in ourselves and our

school.

The club team has partici-

pated in a number of competi-

tive leagues since its inception inFebruary 2013 and is currently

a member of the Collegiate Star

League, competing in tourna-

ments with other collegiate

teams from around the country.

Mohammed is pleased with the

current condition of his club and

team but admits that the future of

his team at the university could

be in jeopardy.

Unlike Robert Morris Uni-

versity, we dont yet have a way

to ensure our team will have

enough quality players once

some of us have left, Moham-

med said. Incoming freshmen

could have trouble finding us if

we dont find them first.

He feels building strong

eSports communities in localschools can solve this problem,

and one BYU student thinks

that is worth trying here in Utah

County.

Michael Center, a 27-year-old

teaching student at BYU who

works at Orem Junior High

School, will be the faculty advi-

sor for the schools first League of

Legends team.

Since it will be the only junior

high team around, the eSports

team at Orem Junior High will

not have anybody outside its

school to play against, yet.

The team will likely be orga-nized more like an after-school

intramural league, with a num-

ber of small teams at the school

competing with each other,

Center said. I think theres a

good chance well have enough

interest to field a good number of

teams at the school alone, so the

kids will have plenty of opportu-

nities to compete.

Center anticipates his eSports

team will be successful and

hopes its success will encourage

other local junior high and high

schools to form teams of their

own in the future.

This first year is intended to

be very research based, to see

what works and what doesnt,

Center said. The goal is to getsupport from a bunch of schools

in the Alpine School District and

get competitive play happening

between a number of schools

within the next few years, espe-

cially on the high school level.

Center suspects local schools

will want to get onboard once

they see how eSports are able to

give some students who are not

as interested in traditional sports

the opportunity to develop social

skills, learn discipline and take

pride in their accomplishments.

Studies show you can get the

same social and psychological

benefits from playing coopera-

tive video games as you do from

playing team sports, Center

said. This program is intendedto reach those disenfranchised

kids who want to be involved but

who arent interested in or good

at sports, or music, or theater, but

who enjoy gaming.

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Hamas rocket attacks have BYUJerusalem Center taking precautions

B y J O S E P H M O X O N

BYU Jerusalem Center stu-

dents and faculty have been using

an in-house bomb shelter as a pre-

caution against rocket attacks by

the Hamas militant group.

There were several orders to

move to the bomb shelter T ues-

day and again on Thursday.

Students are also seeing other

restrictions when traveling

around Jerusalem. The univer-

sity still considers the overall

situation safe for students to

remain. The Jerusalem Center

has had periods of closure in

the past because of unrest in thearea.

BYU released a statement July

10 saying that code-red sirens

sounded throughout Jerusalem

that evening, briefly sending

students to the centers bomb

shelters. Rockets fired by Hamas

and al-Quds, the military wing

of Islamic Jihad, have been firedinto Southern Israel, includ-

ing Jerusalem, since July 8,

when students and faculty first

retreated to the centers two in-

house shelters.

The Jerusalem Center is situ-

ated in East Jerusalem, which is

populated predominantly by Pal-

estinians and has not been the

target of any terrorist rockets.

Time in the shelters has lasted as

little as 10 minutes.

Taking cover in the centers

bomb shelters is not a routine

occurrence. During most semes-

ters, students never need to go

underground.

But that isnt to say students

are unsafe, or even scared. Jeru-

salem Center student Jessica

Hart, 24, a BYU nursing major

from Colorado Springs, said the

media is making things in Jeru-

salem out to be much more dra-

matic than they actually are.

We all feel very safe here; we

are able to go out during the day,

and the people are very calm in

the streets. Yesterday, I went

out on a field trip to the Jewish

Quarter, bought pancakes that

are being made for Ramadanand then visited a few different

churches. I do not feel threatened

at all while being outside, she

told The Universe.

Our security staff is well

trained and aware of what is

going on, she said. There is

still tension, but we do not feel

endangered.

BYU issued a statement earlier

last week informing parents and

others that everything is undercontrol and that steps are being

taken to ensure students safety:

The Jerusalem Center is safe.

All students participated in a

calm and uneventful field trip

to Bethlehem earlier Tuesday.

Because of current tensions, East

Jerusalem and the Old City are

currently off limits to students,

and travel to West Jerusalem is

permitted during daylight hours

only. Travel to and from West

Jerusalem is by taxi only, and

the use of public transportation

within Jerusalem is prohibited

until further notice.

The missile attacks have

increased tensions in Israel,

already high during the last few

weeks after three kidnappedIsraeli teens were found mur-

dered in Palestinian-controlled

West Bank and a Palestinian

teen was burned alive by Israeli

extremists. The Israeli military

has responded to the attacks with

deadly force, deploying active and

reserve army, navy and air forces

to Gaza to quell the situation.

The State Department hasnt

issued an updated travel warn-

ing for Israel and the West Bank

since February, when it advised

Americans not to travel to the

Gaza Strip but characterizedsafety in most major metropoli-

tan areas as comparable to or

better than those in other major

global cities.

Over 3 million foreign citi-

zens, including hundreds of thou-

sands of U.S. citizens, safely visit

Israel and the West Bank each

year for study, tourism and busi-

ness. The Government of Israel

and the Palestinian Authority

make considerable efforts to

protect U.S. citizens and other

visitors to major tourist desti-

nations, the State Departmentadvisory says.

According to the centers secu-

rity update, The area around the

Center remains calm and quiet;

students will continue with their

regular academic and planned

co-curricular activities through

Saturday: Tomorrow (Friday)

is an instructional day, and stu-

dents will be at the Center. Satur-

day is the Sabbath, and students

will be at the Center. Decisions

regarding activities on Sunday

and beyond will be made later by

Jerusalem Center administra-tion and security personnel, who

continue to monitor security mat-

ters closely.

Mark A. Philbrick/BYU Photo

BYU Jerusalem Center exterior and Old Jerusalem. Students and faculty have been using an in-housebomb shelter as a precaution against rocket attacks this past week.

6 The Universe, July 15 21, 2014