Two teams sat across from each other onstage at the Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. An announcer called the action while the crowd followed each move on a giant screen. Remote viewers watched online.

For Mario Rodriguez Padron, the setting felt far removed from playing Overwatch in his dorm room.

“You feel the energy,” said Rodriguez Padron, a senior majoring in accounting and captain of NC State’s five-player team. “It’s something you never replicate from your dorm.”

In May, NC State defeated the University of California, Santa Barbara, to win the National Esports Collegiate Conference’s Overwatch P1 national championship. The team also placed third in the tournament’s broader field.

Overwatch is a fast-paced, objective-based first-person game built around communication. Rodriguez Padron plays tank, the role responsible for calling movements and directing teammates during competition.

“Everybody’s relying on you,” said Cody Elsen, NC State’s Esports program director. “You’ve got to be a strong leader.”

The team’s title came during its first year as a university-supported team competing nationally. The group placed among the nation’s top 10 the previous year, operating as a student club, as it had for more than a decade.

Elsen said the players were not recruited or offered scholarships, practices common in collegiate esports. They arrived at NC State as students, found one another and developed into one of the country’s top teams.

After the trophy presentation, the noise gave way to a quieter celebration. The players returned to their hotel, gathered in one room and ate dinner together before an early flight home.

By morning, the national championship trophy was headed back to Raleigh with them.

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