The Ringling Rollers Valorant Esports team won another game last night in the Open Plus East 6 Division against Cameron University Pickaxes Valorant. This was their seventh straight win, and it will advance them to the finals as an undefeated team. They will play the University of Wisconsin-Superior Valorant in the finals on April 22 at 7 pm.
The team plays Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on Nintendo Switch. It is led by captain Sophie Leone ’26, Illustration, and coaches Hanz Ago ’23, Illustration, and James “Rivers” Wade. The team is overseen by Recreation and Wellness Director and Head of Esports E Ramey.
The Ringling Rollers Smash Esports team came out at the start of the season and continued that success all semester, leading to a perfect 8-0 regular season record. They led by not losing a single match all season and finishing with a perfect 16-0 match record (their second time going completely undefeated in matches and games in school history), making them the #1 overall seed in the Open Plus division,” shared Ramey. Ringling Rollers Smash Esports team continued their playoff run in the Open Plus 1 Division as the #1 against Bucknell University Smash. They will move on to play Emerson College Smash in the Grand Finale on April 21 at 7 pm.
Ringling College’s Esports program launched in March 2020, with over 100 students participating in intramural Esports games. In spring 2021, the program grew into three club Esports teams. From the three, the Ringling Rollers were chosen for varsity competition. Each member of the Varsity team receives a Ringing College scholarship for competing.
In August 2023, the College opened the Esports Arena, which is equipped with 10 CORSAIR VENGEANCE i7400 Gaming PCs, Intel Core i9-13900K, NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphic cards, 64GB DDR5 5600 MTs memory, and two terabyte NVMe SSDs. Four console stations have Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. The most popular games for play are Valorant, Overwatch, Super Smash Brothers, Fortnite, and Rocket League, and teams practice twice a week.
This summer, the College will launch an Esports summer camp for students ages 12-18 and entering grades seven through 12. The camp will run in weekly sessions from June 30-July 24. Students will receive in-game training, drills, and game breakdowns, experience the Esports room, play with the coaches, have daily matches and challenges, and take regular wellness breaks. Learn more on the Esports Camp webpage.
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