Thomas Walter

Thomas Walter is a graduating senior from the College of Arts and Sciences with a major in Psychology and minors in History and Sociology. At the same time, he served as the Competitive Esports Director with UB’s collegiate team for the past year on top of being a member for the last two and a half years.

Despite such a busy schedule, keeping multiple competitive teams organized and helping the Esports culture grow has been a rewarding endeavor for Thomas. Now competitive gaming on-campus has a new home thanks to the arrival of Level Up.

Before the Esports teams reached official competitive status, Thomas served as the President of the Rocket League Club. “Overall, Esports has come a long way. It will continue to come a long way… the role that I’m trying to play is to speed that process up as much as possible.” 

Through his senior year, Thomas still played on the Rocket League Team while managing competitive data and keeping the Esports team organized behind the scenes. “I typically use Microsoft 365 and Google software… and I use it a lot for data collection and just to organize my thoughts.” 

The opening of Level Up has left Thomas optimistic about the future of the organization. “Esports is here to stay. Esports is a big deal and it should be taken far more seriously.” One of Thomas’s goals has been to bring more awareness and attention to the Esports program, which he believes stands for inclusivity and community.

“Realistically, when I joined two and a half years ago, I couldn’t imagine where it is now,” Thomas said. He hopes that in the next five years, Esports is regarded on campus as any other competitive collegiate sport.

Thomas uses Adobe Creative Cloud tools, like those available in the UB iMac computing sites, to make his projects happen for his classes as well as the Esports team. “Although on a very beginner level, I could still use those to provide an outreach for the club.”

These UB resources gave Thomas a way to create visuals, montages, and other media to build a better club identity as well as generate hype among the student body.