By Grant Morrison | Grant Morrison
When one thinks of Baylor Athletics, the first images their minds conjures would likely be Scott Drew’s 2021 National Championship men’s basketball team. Maybe it’s two-time women’s basketball Player of the Year and national champion Brittney Griner. Or it could be former quarterback Robert Griffin III hoisting the Heisman Trophy in 2011 or Acrobatics & Tumbling’s perennial dominance.
Soon, Baylor hopes to add esports to the ranks of the university’s athletic excellence.
Since 2017, the Oso Esports club has been a presence on campus that allows students interested in online gaming to foster an organization of community and competition. Membership stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in the fall of 2021, a resurgence in activity and recruiting ensued. The club has since grown to include more than 300 members under the leadership of Texarkana senior Joshua Linnett.
“Just this semester, we had about 50 people joining from Late Night,” Linnett said.
Oso Esports competes in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, an esports league with over 180 schools and 1,300 teams. The team competes in games such as Overwatch, Rocket League, Valorant, Super Smash Bros., League of Legends and several others.
As an unofficial university team, the group operated and competed with the blessing, but not branding, of Baylor University. They are unable to use symbols like the interlocking BU on competition gear and branding. Rather than “Baylor esports,” the club goes by “Oso Esports, the team from Baylor.” This semester, the university wants to change that.
Over the summer, Baylor sponsored the Texas Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup final in Arlington, Texas, and invited members of the Oso team to recruit at the competition. The marketing department has used the club as an opportunity for outreach to prospective computer science and engineering students interested in online gaming.
“We started imagining what it would be to elevate them from just one of 300 student organizations on campus to maybe having a closer tie to the institution,” Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jason Cook said.
At the same time, Cook finds it important not to hijack an already successful operation with university overreach.
“I did not want this to be that the university is taking over Oso Esports, because that’s not the case at all,” Cook said.
Student government approved an $80,000 budget for a new, state of the art esports room in the basement of the Bill Daniel Student Center that they hope will be operational by early October. Twelve computer setups allow for combinations of teams to practice simultaneously and scrimmage against themselves. Linnett hopes the room will give potential members who might not have brought their setups from home an opportunity to practice and hone their skills.
Recruitment begins early in the semester, but the team’s membership in ECAC allows them to add members throughout the semester.
“If you’re good enough, we want you to play. There’s no reason we can’t work with you and get you on the team,” Linnett said.
On top of their competitive intercollegiate events, the team has regular meetings on and off campus to foster a strong team dynamic.
“Oso is about finding something you love and something you can work at. It’s the process of making friends, having fun and improving at the game that keeps me coming back each semester,” Austin junior Thomas Trabue said.
As esports grow across the nation, Baylor is looking to integrate its already successful program with university resources and branding in the coming months. A combination between the two could lead towards more high-profile esports events hosted in Waco.
