Story By: Madeleine Matherne 

MONTEVALLO, Ala. – Many people may not think of esports as a “real sport,” but a student at the University of Montevallo seeks to change that. 

Jake Stoup, a mass communication major at UM, is an advocate for esports, a team sport involving competitive gaming.  

The concept of playing video games as a collegiate sport is still somewhat new. Although society stereotypes gamers as lazy and unathletic, Stoup is working to fix that misconception. 

Stoup played traditional physical sports in high school, and only played video games for fun. He became involved in esports at UM after being recruited by a student on the esports team.  

“I was like, ‘I guess I could show up to a practice or a tryout if you want,’” Stoup recalled.  

Not expecting the tryout to go anywhere, Stoup surprised himself with his gaming ability. 

“The entire time I was walking…to the esports room, I was like ‘I’m not the best at my game…I just like the game’. I did fantastic. I made it on the team,” 

Once he was on the team, Stoup began to think of ways to improve his teammates’ competitive spirit. He soon became the first freshman captain of the Overwatch team.  

The challenges did not stop there. New leadership began testing the team’s morale. 

 “After our first full year, we got our first official head coach, and he was a terrible coach,” said Stoup. “He was making everyone hate the game, hate being there. You would think it’s just like sitting in a room playing video games… and he would insult us for doing that.”

We don’t just sit in our rooms and rot; we do physical activity. We want to be known as people.

Jake Stoup

Stoup decided that he was tired of his team being treated this way. He did not agree with the narrative that esports players are inactive or out of shape, and wanted to create change. 

“We have a bunch of players that go to the gym, and a bunch of players who stay active, because we don’t want to be known as the lazy gamers on campus… We don’t just sit in our rooms and rot. We do physical activity. We want to be known as people.” 

Stoup took charge, working day and night to become knowledgeable and prepared enough to take on a leadership role of his own. 

“I’m gonna take this guy’s job” he promised himself. “I stayed up for two months studying everything about esports. That really grew my passion for the team and made me want to push forward… and inspire people to be like…’I found a passion for esports.'”

Stoup’s approach to building up his team was similar to that of a physical sports coach. He encouraged players to take pride in their sport. He decided that the team would begin practice regularly, prepare, and be more competitive. Of course, not everyone was up for the challenge. 

“I had a couple people quit when I became captain because I was like…if we’re athletes here, and we want to be taken seriously, we have to be upheld to all the other things athletes on campus are upheld to.” Stoup said. “The esports team was made fun of a lot when I was a freshman on campus, and we’re still getting made fun of to this day.” 

Stoup is looking to bridge the gap between esports competitors and other athletes on campus.  

“I get it, we’re nerds, we like to play video games, but my goal is to build not only the school’s respect for us, but also our own self respect.” 

However, the relations between esports and physical sports are certainly not all rivalry and feuding. Stoup noted that many of the Esports players are supportive of different teams on campus.  

“We actually love the other teams. We enjoy going to their games. We’re really good friends with the cross-country team.” 

Just as much as he considers his past and present with esports, Stoup is also focused on his future with the sport. He wants to raise awareness about the industry and introduce students to the different aspects of the sport and production. 

“I want to be the bridge between esports and mass comm and get more interested with working those broadcasts and figuring out how to set that stuff up. I’m not really for more people here to get into Esports, more for them to understand the production side of things because they might like that.” 

To learn more about esports at UM, visit the team page.