Kenneth NiemeyerIn a tied series between two rivals, the Landsharks and Bulldogs will face off again this week for the Esports Egg Bowl. This year’s Esports Egg Bowl will be hosted remotely on Oct. 24, and it will livestream for viewers on the Ole Miss eSports Twitch channel.
The all-time series record between Ole Miss Esports and Mississippi State University Esports stands at 1-1. Each club is confident that it will win this year.
“We’re pretty confident. I don’t think we’re as excited as we have been for previous years — just because of it taking place in an online format,” Ole Miss Esports president Sergio Brack said. “But we’re definitely excited, and we’re confident that we can win the whole thing.”
This year’s event was originally scheduled to take place in the Pavillion, but instead will take place remotely because of COVID-19 restrictions. Despite Esports being a remote activity by nature, Brack said transitioning the Egg Bowl to an online format did come with challenges.
Since players will now compete in their own homes, Ole Miss Esports is taking extra precautions to make sure that everyone plays fairly.
“One of the biggest things we’re worried about at this point is that people can get on an online account and send that account to somebody else and have them play for them,” Brack said. “One of the ways we’re trying to combat that is having one (chat server) that all the players will use so they can’t have their own private chats.”
The remote format allowed more time for the events, and it will not take place over two days like usual. The winner will be decided by a best of nine series of different video games.
The Esports Egg Bowl presents a unique opportunity for the programs to showcase talent to the largest audience they usually see throughout the year. Winning the contest often means more than bargain rights for both groups.
According to Brack, MSU Esports is looking to redeem themselves in the eyes of their administration. Ole Miss Esports is an official student organization at the University of Mississippi, but MSU Esports is still searching for that title. Brack believes MSU’s loss in last year’s Egg Bowl slowed their progress.
“We put on a really good showing last year as far as production and quality, but unfortunately, the administration was still sad because we lost, and so were we,” MSU Esports president Josh Chumney said. “So, it’s a really good way for us to showcase who we are as a club, what we’ve been doing, that our teams are getting better.”
Chumney is also confident that his team will get the win this year. He said it was difficult to build team chemistry because members have not been able to meet with each other in person, but he’s confident in the amount of practice his players have had.
“We’re pretty confident,” Chumney said. “We lost last year, but it was close to the final wire. Our teams have been putting in a lot of practice, so we have to come back and prove ourselves. We won the first year, so I think our teams are overall pretty confident.”
