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Braeden Cheverie started playing professional Call of Duty in his junior year of high school. When applying to colleges, he discovered that collegiate esports is a growing community that he could tap into, and decided to start a team at Syracuse University.

“The biggest reason I chose to go here, opposed to some other schools, is because of the potential and willingness to grow,” Cheverie said.

Cheverie, a freshman at SU, is one of the co-captains of the university’s competitive COD team, now in its inaugural season. The team competes weekly against other colleges’ teams and hopes to reach the level of other Syracuse sports in popularity and campus support.

COD has several different branches of competitive play, known as the traditional Call of Duty League, CCL, Call of Duty Collegiate League and Challengers. The players’ level of experience and viewership differentiates the leagues. In CDL, many players have salary contracts and work full-time as streamers, said Luke Hasenwinkel, a sophomore at SU. Challengers, on the other hand, deals with more “growing pains” as the players are less experienced and monetary incentives are rare.

This is Syracuse’s first year as a member of the CCL. The team is part of the Northeast division, which includes Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, all of New England, Ontario and Quebec.

For Hasenwinkel, collegiate esports offer an opportunity to show skill and compete for a community of video game lovers.

“There’s a lot of kids who grew up and played Call of Duty,” Hasenwinkel said. “Wouldn’t you want to see how that blossomed into the professional world?”

Hasenwinkel said there was nothing similar to the COD team they have now before this year. He recalled attending the club fair and seeing that recreational esports was an option, but there was nothing with a tight-knit community aspect, like a team.

He said he would be ecstatic to see esports get to the status of other collegiate sports at Syracuse and thinks that SU is on the right track to harness its possibilities. Through the upcoming esports major, new esports center and events in Schine Student Center, he sees a “bright future ahead.”

Cheverie kickstarted the team and did an excellent job getting it running, Hasenwinkel said. He was optimistic for the future because Cheverie is a freshman and has the rest of his time at SU to develop the team further.

Cheverie said SU has been very supportive with expanding into the uncharted waters of collegiate esports. He has been able to speak in some classes and advise the university on what the upcoming esports major should look like. Through connections made in his professional COD career, he has supplied the school with guest speakers and information about the field.

The team consists of four starting players and two substitutes who practice six days a week. Practices consist of three main components, Cheverie said — the team plays ranked COD, scrimmages and watches back old footage to see how they can improve, just as every sport does.

All smiles going into this weekend. 😀

A photo posted by syracusecod

Right now, one of the team’s main goals is to increase student engagement. The team worked with the Barnes Center at The Arch to set up a student section for its matches, which helps the team reach the community. Cheverie said he appreciates the audience during matches.

“It’s great to feel the bodies behind us and get the ‘good jobs’,” Cheverie said.

To increase its engagement, the team is working with the Newhouse School of Public Communications to get its matches live streamed. Currently, the team has a few people assisting with social media, but it wants to advance its presence by getting professional help from Newhouse staff.

The team hopes to expand and reach the level of other sports at SU. Pat Hogan said it’s currently a club sport, but he would like it to become another of SU’s Division I teams.

“I always argue that we’re athletes, we’re putting in practice on top of school,” Cheverie said.

Hasenwinkel said there’s a stigma around esports because people don’t recognize it’s a major sport. He was nervous to tell his parents about joining the team at first, but they were supportive of the fact that he was getting involved on campus.

People who love esports love it for the competitive aspect and the community, he added. The level of friendship and camaraderie on the team matches that of any traditional sport.

“I look forward every day to practicing with these guys,” Hogan said. “We’re getting better as a team, learning together, and everyone gets along.”

Cheverie said one method he uses to help the team bond and be physically active is to work out together as a group. Despite the fact that gaming is not a physically active sport, it requires mental stability that comes from improving yourself, so Cheverie tries to promote physical health for the team.

“Gaming is a mental thing,” Cheverie said. “I always tell people it’s about 80% game knowledge and mental stability and about 20% physical skill.”

Through his experience, Cheverie has gotten personal sponsorships, including Mountain Dew. He’s trying to get companies to move to the college esports space because it’s a new, untapped market.

The rules surrounding college athlete compensation changed in 2021 to allow students to profit off their name, image and likeness. Cheverie hopes to get SU’s COD team sponsored.

Hogan said SU should continue to pursue esports because regular sports don’t appeal to everyone. He said esports is inclusive and it’s crucial to cater to the community on campus that is interested in that field.

As a senior with only this year to experience being on the team, Hogan wants to stay involved and watch the community expand, maybe as a coach.

“We can do so much more with recruiting and coaching. It’s all on us to make the team,” Hogan said. “I know we can do bigger and better things.”

Published on February 26, 2023 at 10:51 pm