Triton esports players Yudin Gurung and Mahde Alkharabsheh are part of UMSL’s first-member Valorant team. Alkharabsheh serves as the team captain. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Mahde Alkharabsheh first became hooked on video games when his older brother brought home a PlayStation.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater sessions with his brother soon turned into a growing passion for Alkharabsheh. By his early 20s, he discovered PC gaming and the highly competitive, first-person games popular on the platform.

Now, at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Alkharabsheh has turned his skill and passion for video games into something far more than a hobby. During the 2024-25 school year, he joined the Triton esports team, and this year, he is on the varsity roster and also a team captain.

“I always watched esports,” said Alkharabsheh, a junior majoring in cybersecurity. “When I first started playing Valorant, I thought was interesting watching esports and just got really hyped about it. Obviously, it’s a dream for any person that plays video games to be part of an org or a team that wins something. That’s why I tried out.”

He is just one of many UMSL community members that have benefitted from the esports program, which the university launched in 2023.

Bovey Zhang, the inaugural director, has been steadily building it over the past two years. Zhang’s focus the first year was recruiting and retaining 40 players – 20 varsity and 20 junior varsity – while he prioritized building community around the team during the second year.

His efforts have been largely successful as Triton esports enters its third season with a complement of student workers in media production and marketing roles and an online community of more than 400 tuning into live streams and hanging out online.

The varsity roster currently competes in four popular multiplayer games – League of Legends, Valorant, Super Smash Bros. and Overwatch – and hosts practices, tournaments and community events in newly established Triton Esports Arena on the ground floor of the Millennium Student Center.

However, members of the team get more out the experience than the thrill of victory. Zhang aims for players like Alkharabsheh to develop skills they’ll be able to take from the digital realm to the real world.

“I think the ultimate goal of any program in a university standpoint, is career building, right?” Zhang said. “I think the core objective of our program is: We have a competitive environment where we’re going to put you on the team; we’re going to practice; we’re going to build leadership within that team; and then we’re going to compete at the best level as we can, with discipline and consistency behind it.”

That means a rigorous practice and competition regimen. The team competes during both fall and spring, and Zhang said the season starts the first week of each semester. A typical week includes three practices, two scrimmages and games on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Alkharabsheh and Yudin Gurung, a freshman majoring in computer science, admit it’s a full schedule, but it’s necessary to build chemistry and trust between teammates, especially those who aren’t used to playing on an organized team.

“It definitely changes the perspective for many people,” Alkharabsheh said. “I think one of the hardest things is definitely in the beginning because you’re not just playing with anybody, you’re playing with people that have the same interest, and you have to find solid ground in order to compete together.”

Alkharabsheh and Gurung are both part of the Triton esports’ Valorant team. The tactical first-person shooter pits teams of five agents with special abilities against each other. The action is inherently fast paced, but playing competitively at the collegiate level is a much different experience than logging online to play a few rounds after school or work.

It all comes down to preparation. Alkharabsheh explained that each member of the team has dedicated roles and functions, and the team has strategies, or “strats,” it looks to deploy as the game unfolds. Gurung added that this relies on coordination and discipline between teammates.

“It’s definitely more pressure because there’s something on the line,” Alkharabsheh said. “When playing online matches, the team synergy is different. Many random people and you’re going against random people. It’s unpredictable. But when going against an actual team that’s organized, they have set strats. You need to play your game and play your strats but then see how they’re playing and react to it. It’s a lot of on-the-spot decision-making.”

As the Valorant team captain, Alkharabsheh has been happy with the level of play recently, particularly Gurung.

“This is my first time doing this with a team, but I think I’m doing pretty well for now,” Gurung said.

There have been ups and downs, though. During the squad’s last contest, it was overmatched against a highly skilled, more established team. Everyone took the loss in stride, and it motivated the team to double-down in its preparation for the last match of the fall season.

“You take those tough losses, and you work on where you were weak,” Zhang said. “You grow from there. Because you can’t always win everything. If you win everything, you will never learn anything. The biggest learning curve is when you start getting losses, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, I need to work on this.’ You’re able to pinpoint those objectives, and hopefully that morale boost goes on to next week’s game.”

Zhang is excited about the future of the program and is focused on a few goals for the future. First, he’s weighing changing what games the team competes in next year. Adding a newer game might allow UMSL to develop a foothold in that space before other universities. The program will also be focused on recruiting top talent and growing the esports community on campus, particularly through monthly in-person events at the Triton Esports Arena.

As for Alkharabsheh and Gurung, they know it’s a lot of effort to juggle esports and academics. But they’re willing to put in the work.

“If you manage your time right and make enough sacrifices,” Alkharabsheh said, “it’s worth it.”