On October 27, Mississippi State (MSU) and Ole Miss faced off once again in the Esports Egg Bowl. Based on the annual football game, the esports variation just held its seventh edition, seeing students from both schools meet at David H. Nutt Auditorium on the Ole Miss campus.

A Fierce Battle Between the Two Schools

This year’s Esports Egg Bowl saw Ole Miss and MSU compete in seven popular esports titles. Despite having several staple titles such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Overwatch 2, and Rocket League, not all the esports giants were present.

Instead of titles like VALORANT or League of Legends, genres generally underrepresented in the collegiate esports space had their time in the sun. Street Fighter 6 gave the FGC community representation while EA Sports College Football brought the esports event back to its traditional roots.

“My favorite game to watch was the new EA College Football 25 game,” said “Doobs”, Mississippi State esports president.

“Using the actual Egg Bowl in the game and playing it at the host school’s stadium just like in real life makes for a very unique dynamic. I’m super excited to have the game in the lineup again next year.”

MSU player AJ took home the point for the away team in EA College Football 25. That gave MSU the lead 2-1 on the series after Mississippi State and Ole Miss traded wins in Rocket League and Street Fighter 6 respectively.

The two teams waged a back-and-forth war, continuing to exchange game wins. Ole Miss tied it up with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; MSU took back the lead with Call of Duty before Ole Miss kept the Egg Bowl alive by winning Overwatch 2.

For Jarrett, the Overwatch team captain at Ole Miss, the pressure was definitely on.

“We definitely feel way more pressure going against MSU compared to other teams. We want to play our part in bringing the trophy home and if we do not play to or above our standards it really impacts us.”

With the series tied at 3-3, the winner of the 7th Esports Egg Bowl came down to Counter Strike 2.

“PantsThief” was formally a member of the MSU CS2 team, but transitioned to being their tryouts coordinator for this year. He has a clear memory of competing in the Esports Egg Bowl last year.

“It feels absolutely terrifying, but in a good way. Having people right there in front of you watching exactly what you’re doing is terrifying, but I feel it helped me play better. It made me focus more on what I was doing in the match.”

Whatever pressure his CS2 team was feeling during the day’s final game, they didn’t show it. They managed to take down Ole Miss and, in enemy territory, bring home the 7th Esports Egg Bowl.

What Makes the Esports Egg Bowl Special

For John McDermott, esports director at Ole Miss, planning for this year’s Esports Egg Bowl has been long in the making.

“For an event like this, we started looking for spaces back in May. Then once you do that, you can enter the fun part of building sponsors and partners for the event.”

All of that preparation for a LAN with only two schools might seem overkill, but Ole Miss and MSU had to scrape everything together themselves. Planning for the venue, production, sponsors, and everything else needed to make a LAN great takes months in advance to prepare.

What’s the point, then, of putting all this energy into a show match between two schools? Ultimately, what makes the Esports Egg Bowl great can often seem lacking at other LAN events.

“The environment is much more intense,” said Doobs. “It’s one of the bigger rivalries in the collegiate world, so naturally it’s pretty wild.”

“The intimately sized crowd (usually under 400 people) makes for a much more personal and intense atmosphere. There’s really nothing quite like it that I’ve ever seen or been a part of.”

Engaging a crowd is often a difficult task for esports events. Without the physical spectacle of traditional sports, there’s a greater challenge to drawing a crowd and keeping them engaged, including players that are already finished competing.

John McDermott, esports director at Ole Miss, commented on the difference in atmosphere between the Esports Egg Bowl and larger collegiate LAN events, as well as ways to bring more hype to them.

“I am not really sure how to do this, but I think bring fans or more members of the program to these LAN events might be great for it. Obviously there is a huge expense associated with this, but I think it drastically changes the viewing experience.”

“I recall HUEfest in 2023 when the Rocket League team was in the finals. In a full venue close to the size of Nutt, we had potentially maybe 5-10 fans that were watching the game, but coming into Nutt Auditorium for the event you’d hear the roar of crowds when a big play happened, and it really creates a better LAN feeling.”

While bringing out fans for these events isn’t likely, drawing in nearby students and spectators not actively competing could do a lot to make big collegiate events feel as big as their productions and even prize pots.

Capitalizing on Collegiate Rivalries

College esports has long been looking to capitalize on many of the aspects that make traditional college sports popular and profitable. Schools sell jerseys, engage on social media platforms, and compete against each other for prizes and bragging rights.

Despite looking towards college football for inspiration, most rivalries receive little more than a quick nod on social platforms.

For many top performing esports programs, their traditional sports programs lack comparatively behind. While Maryville and Winthrop might be an exciting League of Legends match, a football game between the two would be less so (largely considering Winthrop doesn’t even have a football team).

The opposite problem is also true. Just because two schools have great programs in football and basketball doesn’t mean their Overwatch teams are guaranteed to stack up.

Clear efforts have been made recently. The NECC recently announced their Project I initiative which will see esports programs play against teams in their traditional sports conferences.

While there might currently be skill discrepancies between Big 10 and SEC schools, perhaps direct competition will be what’s needed to commit additional resources to esports.

As for events like the Esports Egg Bowl, the reward for indulging in the historic Mississippi rivalry has been incredible: hundreds of students cheering on their classmates in an intense competition with quality production.

Those rewards don’t come easy though. It’s a long stretch of coordination and planning for an event bound to have hurdles and complications along the way.

For John McDermott, though, all that effort is more than worth it. Reflecting on the recent Egg Bowl:

“You are trying to get through putting on an event to give the best experience possible to the students and viewers. You find solutions for problems that could completely destroy an event if not solved. But you get through it and come out better for it. Both as a person and a program.”