Tespa is excited to reveal its Fall premier competitive programs and offer a sneak peek of what’s in store for Spring.
- Tespa will host competitions that span the entire academic year for Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.
- Premier collegiate leagues will be split into Fall and Spring seasons:
- One season will challenge students to assemble the strongest possible team on campus and battle against the best players from other schools.
- The off-season will be open to any and all students looking to play, sharpen their skills, and rise to the top.
- The aforementioned games will be supported next year and beyond; be on the lookout for new games being added to the roster in future.
The premier collegiate league system will afford players at every skill level an opportunity to participate, while also providing a persistent structure that teams can plan around. We encourage players to get involved throughout the season, whether it’s through playing in the open leagues, practicing for the highest level of competition, or cheering teams from their school to victory during weekly broadcasts. We’re looking forward to supporting the robust communities that spring up around teams at schools around the country.
Tespa Collegiate Series: Overwatch
We challenge your school to rally the best Overwatch players on campus to participate in a 7-week league for a shot at over $100,000 in scholarship prizing! The tournament will be split into four regions, and the champion from each region will advance to the live finals in January!
To help with finding the best players at your school, we encourage you to designate an official coordinator who will help organize your team’s roster, schedule practices, and work with Tespa to ensure your team represents the full strength of your school’s student body. Rosters will be fluid for the first five weeks of group stages, meaning there will be plenty of time to perfect your starting lineup throughout the season.
There’s no time to waste, so get on the payload and find or create your school’s team now!
Don’t fear if you don’t make this year’s tryouts for your school’s primary Overwatch team. There will be plenty of opportunities to represent your school in other competitions this year, including the open league this Spring.
Hearthstone Training Grounds
Hearthstone returns this year with $50,000 in Scholarship Prizing, legendary gear, and opportunities to organize your own Fireside Gathering! Your school can field as many teams of 3 that want to participate, but we challenge you to unite your Hearthstone community on campus by designating a coordinator.
The top four teams will advance to the live finals in January!
Registration is open now, so gather your friends, pull up a chair, and prepare your best decks!
Heroes of the Storm Training Grounds
Compete in a series of weekly tournaments to find the best heroes on your campus, win funds for your Blizzard account, and earn awesome gear! Your school can field as many teams as there are on campus, but this is the perfect time to unite your school around its best team and designate a coordinator.
This is a rolling registration league, meaning you can join the fray at any time between now and November. Teams that compete in at least four of the six weeks and have a designated coordinator at their school will be eligible to win Heroes of the Storm loot for their fans on campus.
The Nexus is open; visit the tournament page to sign up or find your team now!
The Coordinator Program
We’re looking for Coordinators to act as Tespa liaisons for the players at their school. Coordinators provide teams with the support structure they need to focus all of their energy on improving their skills and allowing them to compete at their best. Here’s a snapshot of what they’ll be responsible for:
- Working with Tespa to schedule official matches for their teams.
- Setting the official rosters for their school’s primary team.
- Ensuring any prizing that a team may receive reaches their community.
Other things to keep in mind:
- Coordinators can serve for one or multiple leagues. For larger schools, we encourage designating one coordinator per league.
- Coordinators sponsored by a Tespa chapter or other student organization with a faculty member signoff will be prioritized over other applicants.
- Coordinators may be eligible for some of the prizing that their school wins.
If you are interested in acting as Coordinator for a specific league at your school, click the button below for more details on how to apply.
Where to Watch?
Collegiate esports will be streaming live four nights a week! Gather your friends to watch the best teams from your school play against long-standing rivals. Full details and caster information will be shared soon, but take a look at our schedule below to start planning when your regular viewing parties are going to happen.
Other Titles
In addition to our premier collegiate leagues, we’ll be hosting other open tournaments throughout the Fall semester. Keep an eye out for additional announcements in the coming weeks.
FAQ
- Why are you running two seasons per game?
- Our players do an extraordinary job of balancing academic commitments while still competing at the highest caliber of play. By keeping our leagues contained to seasons based on the academic calendar (much like traditional college sports), we are able to avoid academic conflicts (i.e., exams) while allowing our players to tailor their academic schedules by semester.
- Why scholarships and not cash prizes?
- While competing in college is fun, we want to ensure that we’re contributing to - rather than detracting from - their success as a student. We want to encourage continued enrollment with a high GPA while rewarding students with scholarships to help with the cost of school.
- Why is there a focus on one team per school? Isn’t it better to have multiple teams compete?
- One of the coolest things about college sports is having a team that your community can rally behind. We’ve found that the best esports teams often have the strongest communities behind them.
Our goal is to give everybody the chance to participate and improve over the course of the school year, but we also want to create an outlet where the best of the best can compete on the national stage and put their school’s esports community on the map. We want to encourage students to form many teams at their school throughout the open seasons so that the best players can rise to the top and form a roster for the league’s one-team-per-school season.
- One of the coolest things about college sports is having a team that your community can rally behind. We’ve found that the best esports teams often have the strongest communities behind them.