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The University of Hawaiʻi at ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ esports program has been nominated for the best collegiate esports program of the year award for the second consecutive year, and its team leader, Nyle Sky Kauweloa, has been nominated for the collegiate esports ambassador of the year award. The public can vote for the team and Kauweloa on the until November 30. The finalists were announced on August 25.

The winner, to be determined by an esports panel of experts (75%) and public vote (25%), will be announced at the Esports Awards ceremony at the Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas on December 13. The esports team and Kauweloa were nominated by their peers across the country as one of 10 finalists for each award.

“I’m speechless. It’s an honor for me, personally, to be nominated for the individual award for the Collegiate Ambassador of the Year, 2022. Then, to have our program, once again, have back-to-back nominations for a top collegiate esports program in North America by the Esports Awards has been utterly amazing,” Kauweloa said. “The rewards that are being seen here, quite frankly, have been the product of years of building out a community of ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ students who care deeply about our gaming community on our ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ campus.”

Program accomplishments

The esports program at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ has skyrocketed since it began in 2019. Among its major accomplishments over the past year, ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯s Valorant team is in the top four in the nation throughout 2022, after winning its first collegiate title last year.

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ was also the host location for another Overwatch League tournament for the second straight year, after becoming the first higher education institution to host the league¡¯s regular season tournaments, playoffs and grand finals in 2021.

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯s League of Legends team earned a runner up finish in the Mountain West division in 2022, and the team¡¯s social media presence earned a top 10 ranking among collegiate programs.

More about Kauweloa

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Kauweloa was awarded the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for a Graduate Assistant at the 2017 ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ Awards Ceremony.

Kauweloa, a spring 2022 communication and information sciences PhD graduate and head of the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ Esports Task Force in the , has been leading the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ esports team since its inception. He has transformed the program to become one of the top 10 programs in the country in just two years.

He has also spearheaded curriculum initiatives in the esports industry, which is , up from $1.08 billion in 2021. ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ now offers an internship credit course for students who volunteered during the Overwatch League tournaments, and Kauweloa also helped launch a three-course esports series in the College of Social Sciences.

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ the ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ esports team¡¯s and pages. More stories on ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½¡¯s esports program.

—By Marc Arakaki

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