By Alex Kurtz, Sports Editor
Starting in spring of 2019, the Landmark Conference will become one of the first conference-wide esports competitions in Division III.
The announcement was made on Nov. 20 and the inaugural season will feature six of the eight teams currently in the conference: Catholic, Drew Elizabethtown, Goucher, Juniata and Moravian. Susquehanna and Scranton are the two without teams currently in the Landmark Conference.
The six teams will compete in a round-robin format for the regular season where the top four teams will qualify for the playoff tournament. Both the winner and runner-up will automatically qualify for the College “League of Legends” national play-in tournament.
“The Landmark Conference was established due to an agreement among like-minded institutions that high standards for liberal arts education and athletic competition complemented one another,” stated Jim Troha, Chair of the Executive Board of the Landmark Conference and president of Juniata College in a press release from the conference on Nov. 20. “The conference has also been responsive to student interest and innovation. It makes sense that the Landmark would be a leader in Division III for this new arena of student competition.”
While Susquehanna currently is not active for “League of Legends” in Landmark Conference play, the school has groundwork that could lead to the involvement from the school in the near future.
Susquehanna has competed in Riot’s ULoL program for the past few years, and went 1–6 last season despite being run entirely by the student-run club on campus.
The club plans on competing again this season, and has already finalized a starting roster and an academy roster that includes 12 players and a head coach and all of which are students at the school.
Collegiate league consists of over 500 student-run clubs, 300 different competitive teams and an ever-growing number of varsity teams from universities across North America.
Last year, UC Irvine took home the college championship after defeating Columbia College 3–0 in the finals. Eight teams competed in the championship bracket, including the University of Maryland, who the River Hawks have played in past years of competition.
With college competition growing rapidly, professional teams are already starting to recruit players to their roster once their time in college has come to an end.
Some college players have even competed on semi-professional teams already, like UC Irvine and former Team Dragon Knights AD carry James “Lattman” Lattman.