Michigan State’s Rocket League team won this year’s Big Ten Esports Conference Championship.
Computer Science junior Connor Neiheisel is on the three-person team that brought home the B1G honors after a perfect 12-0 season. Other team members are Christian Riegert, a sophomore in digital storytelling, and Nick Dowdican, a junior in finance. The team’s substitute member is Andrew Bultman, a junior in computational data science.
Rocket League is a video soccer game played with customized cars. It has been described as soccer meets driving online.
“During the season we play against each school in the Big East in a best of five competitions,” Neiheisel said. “Each Rocket League game is five minutes and the first team to win three games wins the series. The best part is going to the in-person championship with your teammates.”
Neiheisel said the competition is helping him groom skills to become a software engineer. “Communication and teamwork are necessary to compete and win and will be extremely helpful for any job in my future.”
What is Rocket League?
The video competition is a hybrid of arcade-style soccer. Teams of three players customize their car and advance the ball down an online field to score goals in their opponents’ net. The team with the most goals wins the match.
Written by Patricia Mroczek
MSU College of Engineering Media and Public Relations page .