October 29, 2025

Richardson takes over NIACC eSports program

MASON CITY - Kyle Richardson has taken over the NIACC eSports program in the 2025-26 academic school year.

Richardson is an Iowa State graduate where he was a member of the Iowa State eSports Club team.

"When I went to school at Iowa State for my undergrad, their eSports program was an entirely student ran club," Richardson said. "It was fun.

"but just a passion project by the students who wanted to keep the program going year after year. Here at NIACC, the school is willing to put funding and staff toward the eSports program. There is a lot of support here that I feel was not there at the other schools I have been to.

Richardson said that is competitive background in eSports will help him as the NIACC eSports coach.

I was a competitive collegiate esports player for 4 years," Richardson said, "so I know the ins and outs of competing at some of the most popular titles. I know what a successful team looks like and feel confident that I will be able to show that here at NIACC."

Richardson said he has a background in Valorant (at Iowa State) and League of Legends (at Southern Oregon University).

"In both titles, we were able to qualify for regional playoffs multiple times and beat lots of programs with much more resources than we had over at our schools," he said.

Richarson is currently seeking out NIACC students that might be interested in joining the eSports team.

"I want to meet some of the students here at NIACC who are interested in playing games here and build teams for whatever games that have enough interest to make a full team for," Richardson said. "As more students hear or learn about the eSports program here, I hope that we can make as many teams as possible."

Richardson said he does not have an exact date for when the Trojans will start competing.

"I can say for certain that we will be playing in the Division 3 NJAACE league come next semester," Richardson said. "However, if I can get a practice schedule and teams made up here soon, there may be opportunities to play in some other smaller tourneys for practice in the time before we can register for NJAACE."