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'Esports at the Olympics? Hell yeah!'
Amsterdam University College student Tim Alpherts set up the National Students Esports League in which students from all over the Netherlands join in to battle against each other to play League of Legends. His goal: to make competitive gaming more accessible and accepted within student culture.
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There’s a pair of sneakers thrown in a corner, some clothes on the bed, and a series of Xbox games standing on the shelf. If you were to take a quick look at Tim Alpherts’s room, located at Science Park in the east of Amsterdam, it easily compares to your average student dorm. And yet, every Sunday at six in the evening, Alpherts takes place behind his two laptops, puts on his headset and turns his room into a gaming headquarters. Here, Alpherts (21), a third-year student of computer science at AUC, takes control over the National Students Esports (NSE) League. One he set up himself.
The NSE League currently evolves around an online gaming tournament that is called the Spring Split. It spans over twelve weeks, and in nine of these weeks, all of the competing teams – twelve in total – from around the country will have competed against each other in the game League of Legends. Two teams, each consisting of five players, battle it out on the digital ‘field’ with the goal of conquering the opponent’s base. Although the goal may sound simple, the game is far from it. The nine weeks of play result in a ranking, which eventually decides what teams get to compete in the knock-out phase for which the remaining three weeks are reserved.
Esports, as competitive gaming is called, is particularly big in Asia but relatively unknown in the Netherlands. In a sense, then, Alpherts can be seen as a frontrunner in Holland. Gradually, both Dutch and international students from university towns all around the country, from Groningen to Maastricht, have joined forces to compete in the NSE League. But what makes it so popular?
Competitive environment
According to Alpherts, granting all competing teams the assurance that they’ll be able to compete for at least nine weeks – including those that are not very strong – is what makes the NSE League so accessible for students who love to game. In contrast to international and professional gaming tournaments that work with a knock-out system and where only the best teams can enjoy competing, the NSE League is for everyone. Alpherts comments that the notion of a gamer simply looking for an element of competition is undervalued. ‘It is very rewarding to see to what extent the competing players are happy that a gaming league such as the NSE League exists. It gives them something to look forward to,’ he says.
And it is not just its accessibility that makes the NSE League increasingly popular. Aside from bringing teams together in a gaming league, Alpherts also provides live commentary on five of the ten games that are played each Sunday, which the players love. Like a football commentator, Alpherts comments on moves, actions and tactics performed by each player – and all in perfect English. After the night is done, players can re-watch their play and listen to Alpherts’s commentary with the hopes of learning from their mistakes and improving their skills. ‘Players often reluctantly tell me they love it when I give them compliments on their play,’ Alpherts says with a smile.
Stigmas
Alpherts is a man on a mission. He has a clear vision on how to de-stigmatise the way gamers are regarded by outsiders. Alpherts: ‘According to the public, gaming is an unsocial and unhealthy activity. People also think that most gamers suffer from escapism – that they want to escape from reality.’ In the long term, Alpherts wants to get rid of these assumptions. ‘I encourage teams that compete in the NSE League to physically come together during games. This adds a social aspect to gaming.’
Another advantage of a gaming league is that players tend to game for a shorter amount of time. This may sound strange but as Alpherts says, ‘a game of League of Legends can be wearing. You have to really concentrate in order to beat your opponent and you’re full of adrenalin: that takes a lot of energy. Instead of gaming for four hours simply because you’re bored and do not have anything else to do, you game half an hour really intensely, and that’s it.’
A direct result of the team bonding that Alpherts encourages is the friendship between the players of the Amsterdam University College team. Having started gaming together, the team members now also come together for poker nights. ‘Tim is our hero!’ Thomas Hakman (21) says, a third-year neuroscience and cognition student at AUC when asked about what he thinks of Alpherts and his NSE League. Hakman and his team members come together every Sunday. All members are very thankful that Alpherts offers them this gaming experience. Alpherts comments: ‘I set up the NSE League in the way I would have wanted it as a gamer myself, including the online competition, the commentary, and the social aspect.’
Expansion drift
Having successfully established an esports league, what’s Alpherts’s next move? ‘The goal is obviously to make the NSE League bigger and attract more students. It would be great if every Dutch university town had its own gaming league – something I’m definitely working towards.’ Alpherts started organising gaming competitions in August 2015, but has already garnered attention from a sports marketing company. They offered him a job, but Alpherts refused, since said company would not have given him a position on the board, which meant he had to let go of his vision on the future of esports.
If we are to believe Misha Goudsmit (21), a second-year sociology and political science student at AUC, and also a member of the AUC team that competes in the NSE League, esports will become bigger and bigger over the coming years. ‘The popularity of competitive gaming is going to explode in the next ten years. Esports at the Olympics? Hell yeah!’
