The Lawrence University Esports Varsity “Overwatch” team has advanced to the Wisconsin Esports Conference (WEC) state tournament for the “Overwatch 2” Spring 2025 season. The Lawrence Varsity Overwatch team will be competing against teams from Carthage College and the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The tournament will be hosted at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4. There will be a watch party held in Memorial Hall Room 002 on both days for Lawrentians interested in supporting their team from back in Appleton. More details about the event are to be announced.
Esports at Lawrence began in Fall Term 2024 and so far has teams for the games Overwatch 2 and “Super Smash Bros Ultimate.” The Overwatch 2 team is the first and only team from Lawrence competing competitively against other universities in the WEC in the current season.
According to senior Avril Alba and first-year Eliel Valdez, both members of the advancing team, this is the Lawrence Esports team’s first state competition. Valadez said that he was excited for the tournament but admitted that he had some anxieties about going to the state-level competition on the team’s first season of activity. Abla said she was feeling the same way, both excited to take on the challenge, having grown up regularly watching Esports, and nervous.
“I think [the other schools competing at the WEC] see us as unpredictable,” Alba said. “A majority of us said that we just wanted to [play video games] for fun. We were never competitive about it until we started competing against other schools… It was more that we just wanted in [on the action],”
Assistant Director of Student Activities and Support for Students as well as Lawrence University Esports coach Aaron Wojciechowski entered the team into the WEC this year and hopes to expand the Esports team as interests increases. He said Lawrence Esports is currently recruiting for “Valorant” and “Rocket League” teams for the Fall 2025 season. Interested students can sign up via QR codes on posters around campus and in the Esports Lounge or contact student.activities@lawrence.edu.
According to Wojciechowski, the Esports team will be launching their own social media for the 2025-2026 academic year which he imagines will help to increase student interest in the team. In the meantime, he said students can keep up with Esports at Lawrence via the Office of Student Engagement, Activities, and Leadership (SEAL) Instagram or by joining the Lawrence University Esports Discord server by contacting the Office of SEAL.