League of Utes: A Look into U of U Esports
by Brandon Ong
A couple of months ago, we were assigned and had to present two pitches. The pitch that we liked better would be the topic of our final story. My two topics were opioids and League of Legends on the U campus. Even before I presented and after the class’s opinion (everyone heavily favored opioids), my mind was already made. It had to be about the League of Legends team at the U. The opioid pitch was only an obligatory one.
I’m an avid follower of the League of Legends esports scene. The school just formed a team and unfortunately, I’m not good enough to be a player. However, I wanted to contribute to the team by shining a light on them.
It was easy to find sources as I was acquainted with one of the interviewees, Thomas Nguyen. After I interviewed him and another player (Alex Fritz), he pointed me in the direction of AJ Dimick, the director of U of U esports.
AJ was my favorite interview out of the three. Within his first few sentences, AJ’s passion for the school’s esports program was palpable. He talked about how proud he was of the student athletes and his ambitions for the program. However, I couldn’t include the entirety of the interview into my paper. It would have really shown the scope of his love of the esports program. Below is a quote I couldn’t fit into the final story.
“It’s not a coincidence that I am in the position that I’m in now. I’m a Utes fan. I can tell you who played center for the team during the 1990 season and I can tell you who backed him up and where he went to high school. I’m also a huge nerd and my job is a happy marriage of these two things”
The biggest obstacle I ran into was writing the actual paper itself. I had all of my notes compiled in front of me but still wasn’t sure how to string it altogether. The hardest thing was making sure that my story was not boring people to tears. During the pitch, I gave a brief, 15 minute run down of League of Legends. My professor said “Brandon, you threw everything but the sink at us.” With that in mind, I tried my best to explain the game itself and talk about the school’s team in an informative, non-boring way (hopefully).
Intro to Newswriting was definitely one of the harder classes I’ve taken so far. However, with this enterprise story, it was also a rewarding experience. News writing is not one of my strengths but I know that I am a better writer now than I was almost four months ago when the semester started. It was also rewarding to write about something I am so passionate about. My biggest hope is that my enthusiasm shows when people read the article.
U NewsWriting 