Fresno State Student Involvement has found its head coach for the upcoming varsity League of Legends (LoL) esports team. Tommy Cherta Lee, a 27-year-old Fresno native, will be tasked to form the first eSports team at Fresno State.
Gerrado “Jerry” Gomez, coordinator of Off-Campus Student Life and Involvement, knew that once they had hired Lee for the position, he was the “perfect person for this program.”
“He is not only focusing on winning, he wants to build the students holistically,” Gomez said. “Once he has his players doing well competitively in League of Legends, he wants them to also be doing well in life. Making sure they are doing well with their nutrition and as a student. Being a student comes first and then League of Legends.”
Lee’s experience gave Student Life and Involvement even more confidence with its decision to hire him as the head coach. Lee has been playing multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games for a total of 14 years, including MOBA games such as DoTA, DoTA 2, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, League of Legends and more. Lee has been playing LoL since the game’s launch in 2009.
Lee has been a coach for LoL for a total of four years. He has coached — as well as analyzed and advised — for public groups, in private sessions and for teams at different levels. For Fresno State’s eSports team, he is looking forward to the opportunity to bring together a team that will compete in the Mountain West Conference (MW) in January.
Students were given the opportunity to meet Lee as he was formally introduced in the Fresno State eSports arena on Monday, Oct. 28. The info session was held inside of the eSports arena located next to the bowling alley in the University Student Union, where students learned more information about the upcoming team and had the chance to play on the new computer rigs in the arena.
“I want to bring out the best in all the players that do come on board,” said Lee during the info session. “I think that’s what a program at a school should be doing, pulling out the best of students and really giving them an opportunity to shine under what they are good at.”
Lee and Gomez’s goal is to have a team finalized by the end of November in order to prepare the students for Mountain West competition. Fresno State is the second to last college in the MW to have an eSports team. The defending MW champions are the San Jose State Spartans, who beat the Nevada Wolfpack and Boise State Broncos back in March of this year.
“This is a competitive program. This is different from going to the third floor in the library and playing with your friends or playing with your friends on a Friday night” said Technology Services Innovation Consultant Lars Newlander during the info session. “We want to win Mountain West, and we are really serious about it.”
Tryouts for the LoL varsity team will start on Wednesday, Oct. 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. and conclude on Thursday, Oct. 31 from 3 to 7 p.m. Tryouts will take place inside of the Fresno State eSports arena.