Michael Holmes the Esports Gamer

Michael Holmes is a junior from Wright City, Missouri which is a small town with about 3,500 people in it. “When making a decision to go to a college, I wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t too far away and close enough that I could drive home if needed to. I also enjoy how Greenville makes students feel like more than just a number and the teachers get to know the students,” said Holmes. When Holmes is not playing Rainbow Six Siege or doing homework, he is out hanging with his friends around campus, in his friends’ dorms talking, or playing other video games.

Chad Plath, the club president who was watching Holmes play the video game Siege on his Xbox, said that he should join the Esports club since he plays it when he has free time. What is Holmes‘ job on the Esports team where he works under head coach B.J Fink? Holmes stated, “I perform different jobs besides just playing games like making sure all the games are up-to-date, every team is registered for leagues and tournaments, creating flyers, doing maintenance on the computers, and helping set up any events going on.” When Holmes is playing video games, you can see him playing Rainbow Six Siege on the Xbox which is a first-person shooter with tactical realism. This game is created by Ubisoft Montreal. The game puts heavy emphasis on environmental destruction and cooperation between players. This game has multiple modes that can be played like defusing a bomb, rescuing a hostage, or taking control of a capture point. It does not have a campaign, but does have some short stories you can play on solo. The Greenville University Esports team has a Twitch stream that they usually play on, so you can watch them on there. The Twitch stream is called Greenvilleuniv where you can watch all the Esports players play. Holmes personally does not have a Twitch stream, but plays on the Greenville Twitch channel sometimes.

When playing on an Esports team, there is not really a set conference. They have different leagues for the different games that are being played. There are one-day tournaments and they can win prizes depending on what ranked they placed. One of the difficult things about being in the Esports club is time management. Working out a good schedule between homework and the Esport club can be a demanding task. When Holmes makes a schedule, he uses a planner to write down when his homework assignments are due and when his Esports games are scheduled to play so he does not miss anything. Holmes says, “It can definitely be a challenge at times but make sure to stay on top of your homework and keep that a priority, then you will find time to play your games. It always helps to set a certain amount of time to do homework and keep track of all of the homework due dates so you know you will not miss an assignment.”

Media by Derreion Twitty.