Esports Club finishes second in NECC Competition

Charleston Southern University’s Esports Club has been successful in competitive play since its start in 2023. The club founder highlights the club’s accomplishments and talks about the future of the Esports club. 

Josh Ingalls, a senior majoring in cybersecurity, is the founder and captain of the Esports Club. The Esports Club recently finished second in Overwatch 2 and Rocket League at the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) with hopes of competing in the national playoff in early April.  

“I definitely think our Rocket League and Overwatch teams have a good shot at making Nationals,” Ingalls said.  

In the NECC bracket in November, CSU’s Overwatch 2 and Rocket League teams made the finals over state schools such as Florida and Arkansas State universities. Both teams ended up losing 4-2 to Alabama Huntsville and UNC Asheville respectively.   

As well as the NECC, CSU’s Esports club also competes in the Big South Conference which has representation from 7 out of the 9 active schools in the conference, Ingalls said. Last spring, they were even able to score wins in the Big South Esports championship despite being the only team without a dedicated PC Arena. 

As for the future, Ingalls is working towards getting the space and funding for a dedicated PC Arena on campus to continue to grow the Esports club. If this were to happen, the club can encourage a student-athlete mindset on the club members where being a student comes first, he said. 

“If we can facilitate a program where they’re staying committed to their degrees and the games, they play just to build up that camaraderie, I think that’s a good thing and something we as a community at CSU should be investing in and supporting and encouraging,” Ingalls said. 

Currently the club sits at around 20 active competitive members, Ingalls said, with the club’s casual members sitting at around 100.   

Ingalls described the club’s mentality of bringing in new members as “Come one, come all! We want our community to be a place that’s welcoming where you can come and learn from people who have been playing these games for years.” If interested in joining the Esports league, more information can be found on their Instagram page @csu_bucs_esports. 

As well as competing competitively, the Esports Club also hosts tournaments on campus where anyone can play for fun. They also play noncompetitive games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley together where anyone can join.  

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