Goldey-Beacom College is proud to announce David Lawrie has been tabbed to be the program's first head coach.
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Lawrie arrives after serving as a professional Esports coach for Veloce Esports (2019-20), Alpine Sports (2020-21), Torrent (2021-22) and Farmville (2023). He took a three-person roster and created a unit that, through scrimmages, practice and video analysis, competing in Rocket League Championship Series. Lawrie also used statistics from scrimmages and tournament to better his squad through video-replay analysis.
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As a player from 2016-19, Lawrie helped his teams achieve victories at the World Showdown of Esports 4 in Las Vegas and Dreamhack Summer 2017 in Sweden. He also was a captain of Mock-it Esports, helping it to be the runner-up during the Rocket League Championship Series in Los Angeles.
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Lawrie during this same period helped create the practice schedules and a structured plan to better himself and his teammates.
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He also worked for Gamersrdy and Metafy, creating a coaching profile customers can purchase to better than analysis and coaching plans. Lawrie also broadcasted the Salt Mine tournament that streamed on Twitch.
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Lawrie in 2014 graduated from the Morgan Academy in Dundee, Scotland.
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Esports is the College's 14th and Director of Athletics Jeremy Benoit expressed his excitement during this announcement.
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"We are very excited to be adding Esports to the offerings of the College. Esports can be something that is difficult for people to grasp as a 'sport.' Because of that, many institutions house it outside of Athletics in departments like Student Affairs as a club program.  At GBC, we intend to offer this under the arm of the Department of Athletics to provide the greater logistical support that the sport will require to become a premier program in the region."
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The College is renovating one of its existing computer labs in the Fulmer Center into an Esports arena with upgrades to the current technology in the area as well as new furniture, branding, and equipment specific to Esports. Â This will provide the student-athletes with their own dedicated competitive space.
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While Esports is not yet recognized by the NCAA as an official sport, Goldey-Beacom will offer competitive athletic scholarships to prospective students to compete in the sport as it does for its other 13 offerings. Â These scholarships, combined with the already-slashed tuition, will provide a tremendous opportunity for Esports student-athletes to receive higher education at an affordable rate.
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"We're going to look to capitalize on the great programs that already exist in the state of Delaware to help lay the foundation for this program," Benoit adds. "Students in programs like the ones at Saint Mark's, AI Dupont and Caesar Rodney (High Schools) are going to have an opportunity to come to GBC and have a great student-athlete experience while taking part in the inaugural year of the program."
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The co-ed sport has been an attractive addition for many schools and brings together the competitive nature of several games, including Rocket League, Overwatch and League of Legends to name a few. Twitch and YouTube serve as avenues to help promote the games and bring increased attention to the lucrative business.
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Statista.com reported a worldwide revenue from Esports of over 1.1 billion USD in 2021 and estimates it will generate over 1.8 billion USD in 2025. NCSA College Recruiting reports 175 Colleges and Universities are members of the National Association of Collegiate Esports, a non-profit organization which formed in 2016. NACE schools comprise of over 5,000 student-athletes and over 16 million USD combined in Esports scholarships and aid.
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