SEsports celebrates program’s first national championship

May 12, 2025

The Southeastern Oklahoma State University community gathered in the eSports Arena in the Glen D. Johnson Student Union on Friday, May 9, to celebrate the first national championship for the university’s eSports program – SEsports.

The Rocket League team of Carter “gamersity” Hancock, a junior from Tulsa, Dawson “DeeJay” Meador, a junior from Piedmont, and Christian “crimsonchin” Vining, a sophomore from Silo, won the NECC Division 2 national title on Thursday, May 8, defeating Indiana Tech for the trophy.

In the double-elimination bracket, Southeastern had won best-of-seven series to make it to the finals as the undefeated team. SE lost the first match of the championship, 4-3, forcing a winner-take-all match for the title.

Facing Indiana Tech for the third time this season, Southeastern dominated after the bracket reset, rolling to a 4-1 win for the national championship.

“We went in to the match not really expecting too much and kind of coasted through that,” said Vining at the celebration. “After the bracket reset, we came out firing and just took over.”

SEsports coordinator Steven Harris expressed his pride for the work this team had done to get to national champion status.

“We played Division 3 in the fall won that pretty handily to move up to Division 2. These guys did not put anything else aside, but worked so hard to make good grades and also win tournament after tournament, and championship after championship.”

The Rocket League team will now advance to a fall promotion tournament, where the top four teams of Division 2 and the bottom four teams of Division 1 will face off. The top four teams in the event will play in NECC Division 1 in the fall.

“Don’t forget about us in late August, because we’re right on the edge of being one of the elite Rocket League teams in all of college eSports,” Harris said in closing.