College gamers compete at Morningside eSports Invitational

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - A new kind of competition took place this weekend at the Seaboard Triumph Expo Center in Sioux City, as college competitive gamers competed in the first ever Morningside eSports Invitational.

The competition ended Saturday night with the finals as college teams from throughout the region traveled to Sioux City to compete in team eSports.

The event was established to showcase the collegiate eSports talent around the tri-state area and to foster a safe and friendly community for local and regional gamers to compete.

One competitor from Morningside says he learned a lot in this competition and the sport takes dedication to improve.

“Being here takes as much work as being a collegiate athlete, we may work different things we may not have to work out in a sense, but we have our own skills that we have to hone so that we can keep up at a collegiate level, like this isn’t a joke, we are sport,” Morningside Freshman Simon Zychowski said.

This event is referred to as a “Lan” Event meaning everyone competes face-to-face in-person. Morningside Head Coach Jared Amundson said this type of competition is a good test.

“Just like in traditional sports, when you’re playing against somebody on the same court at the same time, all of these players are gonna get the opportunity now and I think it’s it’s an amazing feeling from a traditional sports player myself, I think this is it was needed for the longevity of eSports,” Amundson said.

Another goal of the invitational was to grow the sport as they had stations set up for kids to give the games a try.

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