Esports the Mount Way

“WE’RE LEARNING HOW TO PLAY TOGETHER, to communicate effectively and to trust each other,” says Director of Esports Russ Hamer, Ph.D., during a brief team meeting. Just moments before, players were seated behind computer monitors, wearing headsets and speaking aloud. Knuckles crack. Keyboards chatter. Controllers click. Neon lights illuminate the glass-partitioned varsity space.

Purcell Hall (also known until recently as Club 1808) is home to the Mount’s esports program. The recently renovated 2,200 square-foot headquarters serves as the practice and competition location for student-athletes and includes PCs, couches, ottomans, large-screen televisions, consoles and a virtual reality set. Purcell Hall is the destination for club team players and other students who want to game, watch and hang out.

Students practicing in Purcell Hall (formerly Club 1808)

The transitional space also includes a room for casting and streaming. Hamer offers a streaming practicum where students receive course credits for running Mount event live streams. Due to COVID-19, in-person gatherings are limited so streaming provides a safe way for individuals to participate and engage in social activities. His students have streamed esports games, trivia nights for AMP, and the 9/11 memorial service. They also live stream Mass every Sunday.

“I think it’s good for the Mount to move into new media and start embracing digital video content and content creation and streaming," Hamer said. His long-term strategy is to have a Mount stream running nearly 24 hours per day so students can create unique content. He hopes to showcase music and art, interviews with professors and engage those who want to watch gamers view what life is like at the Mount.

The Mount’s esports team, comprised of more than two dozen players on five teams, competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playing League of Legends, NBA 2K, Overwatch, Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. The ECAC hosts a comprehensive esports program with as many as 200 teams and 50 member schools, including DeSales University, Moravian College, Neumann University, Sacred Heart University, Saint Peter’s University and Siena College. Matches began the last week in September and league tournaments will round out the season by mid-November.

William “Billy” Walker, C’21, is ecstatic to have esports at the Mount. “Many of us have been working since freshman year to get esports started,” says the varsity player for the Overwatch team and Cyber Defense Club secretary. “We couldn’t ask for a better director than Dr. Hamer; he’s the perfect amount of gaming fun and competition to make this program succeed for administration and students.”

Director of Esports Russ Hamer, Ph.D.

Coach Hamer has played, designed and written about gaming. He was also a high-ranking competitive athlete; at his best, he was in the top 0.3% (top 10,000) of League of Legends players. “More people play League of Legends weekly than live in Great Britain,” he added for context.

Before joining the Mount, he taught philosophy at Illinois State University where he was the faculty advisor and head coach of the esports club. Hamer received his doctorate in philosophy from Marquette University in 2018. He recently submitted a proposal for a minor in game studies and esports. “Often we want students to pick up a bunch of these soft skills but we don’t actually teach them. We just hope that along the way they figure out how to be a team member and think critically,” he said from experience. “A lot of the soft skills are things that will make you better at these games: being able to give and receive criticism, being able to communicate effectively, being able to think critically, being able to manage your emotions and not let your frustrations or anxiety get the best of you.”

Hamer is a certified philosophical counselor. “A lot of therapy is rooted in philosophy,” he said. “In the context of esports, you may be in the middle of a game and things aren’t going well; you’re getting frustrated. You can still win, but if your frustration gets the best of you, you’ll lose. What strategies can you adopt to realize you’re frustrated and how it’s affecting you so you can push past that and play well?” he asked.

In October, he gave a presentation at the University of California Irvine’s yearly esports conference titled “Aristotelian Human Flourishing and Esports.” The conference is one of the largest of its kind and presents opportunities for academia and industry to examine a variety of topics. “I took this job because I wanted to do that human flourishing development," he explained.

“One of the reasons I studied philosophy was I wanted to learn how to live a good, happy life,” Hamer says. “Philosophy taught me that.” After years of publishing and teaching, he says coaching and mentoring afforded him a better way to develop relationships and have conversations with students about their futures and their struggles. “I was able to be a mentor and I got into philosophy because I was interested in living a good life— not because I wanted to be a professional philosopher. That’s why I switched gears and came here.”

Connect with esports on Discord at discord.gg/rCc7k85 and Twitch at twitch.tv/mountesports.