The Lorain County Community College Esports team is moving on with a new leader in the spring 2022 as Robert McClelland has stepped into the role of director of Esports for the Commodores.
Though this will be the first year McClelland is at the helm of LCCC’s newest varsity sport, he is no stranger to campus as he’s worked at the College in several capacities for almost 16 years, according to a news release.
“We are thrilled to have someone with Robert’s expertise and passion leading our LCCC Esports Team,” said Katie Marquard, director of Athletics for LCCC. “With the explosion of the sport worldwide, LCCC is on the cutting edge to join in and Robert is the perfect person to lead the charge.
“We look forward to expanding our program in the coming years with additional games and players, with Robert directing our efforts.”
Starting in 2005, McClelland began his career with LCCC in the Help Desk Center and served in that capacity for nearly four years before joining Broadcast Video Services in 2009, a department he still works in for LCCC when he isn’t coaching Esports, the release said.
The 2005 Southview High School graduate started a new venture last fall when he became LCCC’s “voice of Esports” for the Commodores on their Twitch channel: CommodoreEsports, the release said.
McClelland broadcast all 10 weeks of competitions as well as performing hosting/play by play duties for the Commodores, according to the release.
LCCC competed in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate of the Nintendo Switch in the fall of 2021 in the NJCAAE.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a competitive fighting game featuring characters from the Nintendo gaming universe.
Players compete in a best-of-five matches against other players from NJCAAE schools.
Each round players start with three lives, first player to lose all three lives by falling off the fighting platform loses the round.
Since his early gaming years in the 2000s, McClelland has kept himself on the technological frontier, the release said.
Building computers became a passion that led to attending Lorain County Community College and the University of Toledo.
He became an audio-visual technician and learned a variety of programming languages, which developed into game design and the study of game theory as a hobby.
Robert has more than 20 years of gaming experience in Real Time Strategy (RTS), First Person Shooters (FPS) and Role-Playing Games (RPG) on PC and various consoles, as well as 1,000s of hours in MMO and online co-op gaming, the release said.
The Commodores Esports team will continue its inaugural season Feb. 9, as the spring session gets underway.
Matches will be broadcasted on Twitch and at 6 p.m., Wednesdays, under the Twitch channel: CommodoreEsports.
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