Robert Galbreath TORRINGTON – In a January 15 article, the University of Michigan described the growth of Esports a “meteoric rise.” Esports boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and are a “rapidly emerging cultural phenomenon,” the report continued. Esports emphasize reaction time, strategy and collaboration between players in the the gaming world. “Esports is one of […]
Robert Galbreath
TORRINGTON – In a January 15 article, the University of Michigan described the growth of Esports a “meteoric rise.” Esports boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and are a “rapidly emerging cultural phenomenon,” the report continued.
Esports emphasize reaction time, strategy and collaboration between players in the the gaming world.
“Esports is one of the fastest growing sports industries in the world right now,” Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) Esports player Allen Woodard said. “The more the technology grows, the more Esports will grow.”
Woodard’s teammate, Ryder Tillard agreed, “Esports are going to keep getting bigger.”
Numbers back up these statements. According to Yahoo Finance in January, the Esports market was expected to increase by 20.9 percent in 2023 and 2024 while reaching a value of nearly $2 billion in 2023. The Sports Business Journal, also in January, reported a 75-percent spike since 2019 in the number of viewers watching livestreams of some of the biggest Esports tournaments – a total of 2.75 billion viewing hours.
The rise in Esports reflects the enormous popularity in video games, an industry that doubled in value between 2017 and 2022 to an estimated worth of $240 billion, the University of Michigan added.
EWC joined the wave and launched an Esports team this fall, led by coach Caleb Spitzer. Woodard, a Torrington native, and Tillard, hailing from Douglas, compete on EWC’s Esports Fortnite team.
Fortnite is one of the most popular video games in the world, and Tillard is a globally ranked player in Fortnite Battle Royale.
Tillard and Woodard recently entered the NJCAA Esports National Tournament as the No. 1-ranked seed in Fortnite following a successful fall season. The duo advanced to the national semifinals on Monday, December 9.
Tillard and Woodard ultimately placed fourth in the national tournament – an impressive finish for a team only in its first season.
“We had the opportunity to win first, but we’ll take fourth,” Tillard said. “We worked pretty hard at it. We had a really good season coming in as the first seed.”
The team initially did not expect to make it to the semifinals, Woodard added.
“It was tough,” Woodard remarked. “I didn’t really know anything much about Fortnite before this, so it’s kind of a new experience for me. But to be playing with Ryder, one of the best players in the world, has definitely been a learning experience. I didn’t know what was in store for us when I started. It was cool to get this far.”
Putting Wyoming on the map
The premise for Fortnite appears simple. At its roots, Battle Royale is a “shooting game,” Tillard said.
“You go into the game with 100 other people,” Tillard added. “The last one standing wins the game and you just battle it out. It’s a race for kills – whoever gets the most kills out of a match takes that specific game.”
In reality, Fortnite is a complex game of teamwork in a constantly evolving virtual world, Woodard explained.
“We have to learn each other’s strategies and play styles,” Woodard continued. “It involves a lot of understanding the map and adapting.”
Fortnite is constantly updating. During the fall season, Fortnite updated several times on the day before or the day of a big tournament, Woodard said.
“We have to go in and spend hours learning the new map to try and get a competitive advantage against our opponents,” Woodard added. “A lot of it is learning where you’re at (in the game), learning the kinds of weapons that are available, the tools that are at our disposal and being able to communicate as clearly as possible so when we come into these situations – these virtual firefights – we can perform under pressure.”
Woodard and Tillard are both avid video game players.
“I loved playing video games ever since I was a kid,” Woodard said. “I can remember playing on the original Super Nintendo and Sega growing up. I used to play Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat I and II. I even remember PlayStation I and Dreamcast. I’ve been around the block when it comes to video gaming. I didn’t think I’d get competitive with it, but here we are.”
Woodard is a non-traditional student returning to EWC. At registration this fall, Woodard met coach Spitzer and decided to give Esports a try.
“The guy that was showing me around (coach Spitzer) ended up telling me they were doing Esports,” Woodard added. “Now that guy is my coach. It was just kind of something new, so I figured I would hop in and do it.”
Tillard has specialized in Fortnite since Epic Games launched the game in 2017.
“I’ve always played video games – Minecraft, Skylanders, the Marios,” Tillard said. “I’ve played Fortnite basically since it came out. My friends thought I could maybe take this somewhere, and here I am in the Esports program. Fortnite just stuck with me and I’m taking it as far as I can. The journey has been fun.”
Fortnite Battle Royale comprises 18 different levels of accomplishment for players, called “ranks.” Tillard has battled his way to the top level, the elite “unreal” rank in Fortnite.
Finding exact statistics on the popularity of Fortnite can be difficult, but most online sources agree on between 400 million and 650 million active users.
Reaching unreal status in Fortnite is only achieved by a few skilled, dedicated players. According to Fortnite Tracker, out of 11,171,697 players it followed in a recent reboot of Battle Royale called Chapter 5, Season 3, only 74,558 players achieved unreal status – less than one percent.
“That separates casual players from competitive players like us,” Tillard said.
Because Esports exists largely in the online, virtual world, tournaments can take place remotely, eliminating the need for travel budgets. Tillard and Woodard competed against college teams from across the United States and even Canada during the NJCAA nationals from rural Goshen County, Wyoming, in EWC’s new high-tech Esports lab.
When the team is practicing or competing in Fortnite, they can find themselves in games, or “lobbies,” with competitors from literally anywhere. The truly global nature of Esports and Fortnite means Woodard and Tillard, based in small-town Torrington, are going head-to-head with top players in Seoul, London, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Cape Town, Dubai, Prague or even the middle of the Amazon rainforest or Sahara Desert.
“I could come in here and lay and be paired up against someone from anywhere in the world,” Tillard said. “It’s very interesting.”
Practice, practice, practice
Like traditional sports, reaching the top levels of Esports involves considerable preparation and practice.
Tillard attempted to estimate the time he devotes to Fortnite each week and quickly lost track.
“It’s quite a few hours,” Tillard said. “There is a lot of practice involved. From a team standpoint, you’ve got to communicate, learn how to play together and play on your own, adapt to different situations like updates. There are always things to improve on and look into.”
Esports are “time intensive,” Woodard agreed.
“It takes a lot of grinding – being able to sit there, stay in the same spot and play the game, sometimes three or four hours at a time,” Woodard added. “We practice dropping at the same spots on the map (in Fortnite) and learning our areas and coming up with different strategies in case of different circumstances happening.”
Success in Esports also resuires the ability to control emotions on the playing field.
“It can take a toll,” Woodard said. “You have to be able to stare at a computer screen and not get really frustrated. When you start to get frustrated or mad, you start to tilt in your games and the performance definitely shows. It’s hard not to do that. We get pretty invested in (Fortnite). We put a lot of time and energy into it.
“When we feel like we’re underperforming, it can be tough to change up our mindset and get back into a positive light. But it’s something that we work on so that going forward, we can make sure our emotions don’t affect our game play.”
Tillard is majoring in ag-business and Woodard is in interdisciplinary studies, leaning towards a business or psychology major. Esports could present opportunities for the future as well. A growing number of Esports players are making money playing at the professional level in a multi-billion dollar industry.
“The goal is to hopefully go pro,” Woodard said. “Blow up on Twitch, YouTube, Discord – make a name for ourselves. If we continue to work the way we are together, we can go really far. Ryder especially. He has a lot of talent – it kind of comes naturally to him.”
Tillard added that going pro in Fortnite is both a “goal” and “dream.”
“I’ve made it this far already and I’m doing really well at it,” Tillard said.
In addition to Esports and studying, Tillard enjoys working on the family ranch and playing golf. Woodard’s primary focus is his family. He is an avid outdoorsman and can be found hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing or snowboarding.
In the meantime, Woodard and Tillard are already gearing up for the next college Esports Fortnite season beginning in February.
“We have a lot to accomplish still,” Tillard said. “We’re going to learn from this season and take it forward.”
“We get another chance at a national title before the end of the year,” Woodard added. “Hopefully before Ryder and I are done, we bring home a national championship to EWC.”
