PANAMA CITY, Fla. — FSU Panama City’s esports team, in its second year of competition, is heading for the Peach Belt championships this weekend.

The team competed in the Peach Belt Conference (PBC) semi-finals in Overwatch on Sunday, beating Augusta University 3-2, and will now move up to the Champions Division Final in Aiken, S.C., facing off against the University of North Georgia. 
FSUPC has two teams, “Flame” and “Sea,” with the Flame team going to the finals. Flame members include students Timothy Peagler, Kevin Wang, Gregory Shakes, Wesley Williams and Sophia Rivera.

“Given this is the start of our second season, this is a significant win,” said Nicholas Sellers, Ph.D., coach of FSU PC’s esports teams and a member of the Professional Communications teaching faculty. “The team finished 8-1 in the regular season and playoffs. They worked hard and have been really resilient.”

Each match is scored according to a best-of-five finish. Sellers said the team had a few matches this season where they were down 2-0 and “clawed our way back. We earned this.”

Championship finals are best-of-seven matches.

All PBC tournament matches will be streamed live over the PBC Twitch channels; view the Overwatch final at 2 p.m. CDT on Twitch.tv/peachbelt2. No team audio will be carried on the live feed. One or more players from the winning team may be interviewed live following each match.

The FSUPC varsity esports team is the first varsity team in FSU PC history. In January 2023 the team was admitted to the NCAA Division II Peach Belt Conference as an associate member. Open to any full-time students in good standing, the team is university-funded and provides mentorship and the opportunity to travel.

The PBC was the first NCAA conference to hold an esports championship starting with the 2017-2018 academic year. The league was also the first to partner with Riot Games, publisher of League of Legends, the most-played online game in the world, and the first to hold an in-person live conference championship. Esports has become a large and popular competitive sports category with dozens of multiplayer games eligible for championship leagues.

For details about FSU PC esports, visit PC.FSU.edu/esports.

PHOTO: 
FSU Panama City’s Overwatch esports team will compete in the Peach Belt Conference Champions Division Final on Sunday in Aiken, S.C.