California's esports powerhouse isn't USC or UCLA. Here's a look at UC Irvine Esports.
LOS ANGELES — The guy seems relatively calm from a distance. Young and thin, with dark-rimmed glasses and a flop of bleached hair, he sits straight-backed in his seat, occasionally rocking from side to side, eyes fixed on a computer monitor before him.
Closer up, it is a different story.
The fingers of his left hand flutter rapid-fire across a keyboard — click-click-click — and his right hand, gripping a wireless mouse, jerks in sudden movements. Sean Cook is controlling a video-game character on the screen, guiding it up a flight of stairs and blasting away with a shotgun. He speaks urgently into his headset.
"Queen in. Kill queen," he says. "Going hard."
It is a Wednesday evening on the UC Irvine campus and the university is holding tryouts for its powerhouse esports team. Scores of hopefuls have been whittled down to 10 finalists — recruits, walk-ons and a few returning players — invited to a four-hour marathon, an all-or-nothing battle for eight spots on the roster.
"I'm a little bit nervous," Cook says.
His angst is understandable.
Esports — video games as competitive sport — have become a big deal for more than 170 universities
