The Gamerhawks is an organization on campus that is well-versed in many things. Video games, technology and social media are just some to name a few. They are the organization that meets in the new E-Gaming lounge that was installed in the spring ’24 semester and is a hot spot for students to hang out as well.
One very popular game among students is Apex Legends and recently, the club held tryouts to make their first E-Gaming team since the opening of the new lounge.
Thursday, Sept. 19, seven people tried out for the inaugural Apex Legends team. The tryouts were hosted from 5-8:30 pm and consisted of four different trials. It started with a flick and accuracy test and then moved into a test of how well you can hit a moving target. Those two trials were timed before moving on to the next set of trials, which were a 3v3 with randomly selected members. That was done to see how well they could communicate with each other.
The final trial was to put them in a BR (Battle Royale) to test their mechanical skills, communication skills and how well they can do under pressure with new teammates.
The seven people to try out were all able to complete these trials effectively and even communicated with each other after each round of things they needed to improve without the managers saying so.
The team is set up into two teams with one alternate. Team A is Myron Parham, Blaze Chamber and Cameron Thompson with Team B being Gabriel Spears, Felipe Rocha and Jose Hipolito; the alternates are Nasir Davis and Devlin Folds. The managers for this year’s team are Cera Orlovich and James Heart.
The team is currently having scrimmages every week in the E-Gaming lounge starting at 5 on Thursday and Friday, and the first official competition is in January.
The team is planning a bake sale soon to raise money for their team jerseys, so be on the lookout on the Gamerhawks social media pages to know when.
You can follow the Gamerhawks on Instagram @gamerhawksutm for any updates on teams, meetings, tournaments and fundraising events.
