Warrior Sisters is a Eugene-based organization that offers women’s self-defense and training classes twice a week.

Warrior Sisters was started by a group of women that used to work in rape crisis centers. They saw a gap in women’s verbal and physical defense training that was caused by classes being too expensive and inaccessible to women.

“Warrior Sisters was started in 2013 by a small group of women who believe that free, empowerment-based, women-centered self-defense education should be available to every woman,” according to the organization’s website.

Warrior Sisters has 100 regular trainings across 13 states, and anyone across the country can request to have a training held in their city.

The organization serves to “provide free self-defense training to women and girls,” Rachel Collins, the Director of Warrior Sisters, said.

In 2016 alone, 12,436 calls to Lane County domestic violence and sexual violence programs were answered, according to a summary of services provided by sexual and domestic violence programs in Oregon.

The Warrior Sisters offers two classes in Eugene every week at the Art of War MMA, located at 251b West 7th Ave.

The completely free class is on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and is a “Women’s Training” class. This class focuses on verbal and physical defense tactics.

It is open to women and girls over 12 years old; however, people under 18 will need a parent or guardian to sign a waiver to participate.

Collins said that getting parents to sign these waivers is usually not a problem because most middle to high school age girls that come in are looking to do a mother-daughter style training.

Classes are designed to be accessible regardless of fitness or MMA experience level. However, the Tuesday classes are more challenging, according to Collins.

The Tuesday “Sister Strong Women’s Defense” class is free the first time you attend, $9 for drop-in, and $30 per month. This is a more physically focused, workout style class that is designed to be taken after the Women’s Training class, and has no verbal defense training.

Collins said that the women who come to the class set the pace because they know their bodies and needs.

“If someone just needs a breath in terms of this subject matter they can step out and talk to one of our volunteers at any time,” Collins said.

While the organization isn’t currently holding classes at UO, they often do trainings for sororities, and UO students are always welcome to the twice-weekly trainings.

“A large chunk of young women who come to our trainings are University of Oregon students, and we’ve had male students participate in trainings as volunteers,” Collins said.

The organization holds these classes so that women and girls can identify violations of their rights and defend themselves, Collins explained.

“So many women report wanting to take a self-defense class but didn’t for a really long time because of the lack of supportive environment,” Collins said.

On Wednesday, March 7, the Warrior Sisters are holding a fundraiser at Oakshire Brewing Public House from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. $1 from every pint sold will go to the organization and volunteers will be at the fundraiser from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The post Warrior Sisters holds women’s self defense training in Eugene appeared first on Emerald Media.

Imagine a sport played by millions of amateurs, thousands of college students and dozens of professionals. Universities recruit players and offer scholarships. The sport’s most recent world championship brings in a $4.6 million prize pool.

It’s not football or basketball — but a PC game called League of Legends. And it’s coming to the University of Oregon.

Despite Pac-12’s failed efforts to start its own eSports network, a student group at UO has joined 10 other universities to form a new conference of competitive multiplayer gaming independent from the Pac-12.

The students envision scholarships, tournaments and crowds of online viewers like the 4,300 spectators who watched the University of Utah match against the University of Colorado, Boulder on Feb. 16.

Leading eSports schools, like Boise State and Utah, started building their eSports programs within the past two years and participating competitively last year.

Announced on Jan. 31, the Pacific Alliance of Collegiate Gamers (PACG) will run tournaments dedicated to the PC games League of Legends, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Rocket League.

“PACG aims to create a student-driven, competitive eSports league to further legitimize collegiate eSports and elevate the schools involved,” according to the conference’s webpage.

Tim Peckham, the League club president at UO, is rebuilding the club and has high hopes for its future.

“The future of gaming at the University of Oregon would be having scholarships, organized and sponsored eSports at the collegiate level and our own building, resources and administration that we can go to to further our growth,” Peckham said.

Tim Peckham is the president of the University of Oregon League of Legends Club. (Ben Green/Daily Emerald)

League of Legends, sometimes referred to as League, is a multiplayer online battle arena created in 2009. League is a super-strategic, team-based game, similar to capture the flag — only it includes an obstacle course of monsters in the middle.

A five-player team faces off against another five-player team to take over the other’s nexus (like a flag). Each player has their own champion, or animated character, and certain champions are better at certain tasks.

League is the number-one ranked PC game across the globe, according to a report done by Newzoo.

Matches between universities are broadcast on Twitch, a livestream gaming website similar to YouTube. A university League club will often use student commentators from their program to narrate the matches.

Competitions are played in Swiss format in which the top-ranked teams play the last-ranked until only two teams remain.

Prize money for global championships regularly reaches over $1 million, and world championships last year drew a crowd of over 73 million online viewers, according to ESPN’s eSports Charts.

Esports worldwide popularity is mirrored on college campuses around the country.

The University of Utah is one of the PACG universities offering a varsity program with scholarships. They look to recruit high school students for the coming season, similar to the way football and basketball recruit.

The creation of this conference has also gained attention and support from Michael Sherman, the head of college eSports at Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends.

Riot Games wants current high school freshmen to know that they can play League and be supported officially by their school of choice in four years, Sherman said.

“I think the PACG will help vocalize the desire from current students to play under their school banner, and ultimately help drive participation of the Pac-12,” Sherman said. “If you want to cause a waterfall effect of support in college sports, Power Five conferences like the Pac-12 are a great place to start.”

AJ Dimick is the Director of eSports Operations at Utah, and has been working with the students there to help build and advance the program.

“Since the beginning we’ve received support from many sides, and our program grew to include over 600 students,” Dimick said.

The varsity program at Utah officially started in April 2017. According to Dimick, year one for the program has been a grassroots project and has been focused on seeking external sponsorship and donorship to build on the current scholarship fund.

Scholarships for 33 first year players come out of the program’s budget, and students can receive up to $1,000 in scholarships each.

Awarding students competitive scholarships for gaming challenges the stereotype of the unmotivated gamer.

“We want to generate positive narratives about who these students are,” Dimick said. “Outsiders see the meme of these students sitting in the basement, and not who they actually are.”

The University of Arizona is also part of the new PACG conference. However, like UO, they do not have an established varsity eSports program on campus, according to the president of the eSports club at Arizona, Kevin Buchmiller.

Like Peckham, Buchmiller is working closely with university administration to create a varsity eSports program.

“Legitimacy is the hardest part,” Buchmiller said. “We are working hard on getting things started.”

Dimick said he was heavily involved with the Pac-12 when the conference decided in 2016 whether or not to sponsor their own eSports network.

The Pac-12 held a meeting with the 12 university presidents in November 2016, where the presidents of Stanford University and the University of Colorado – Boulder voted against the idea. Without a unanimous vote, the Pac-12 couldn’t move forward with the eSports network.

After this vote, Dimick says Utah president at the time, David Pershing, was very supportive of the eSports program, and pushed them to build one themselves.

“We had bottom up and top down support,” Dimick said.

Currently, the Athletics Department at Utah offers counsel on running the program, but it is entirely run by the Entertainment Arts and Engineering department, according to Dimick.

Buchmiller and Erica Cohen, the Arizona club vice president, worked together to join the creation of PACG.

“Erica handled many of the meetings associated with setting up the PACG,” Buchmiller said. “We had a representative at almost every meeting and our inputs on how we’d like things to look were well received and well heard.”

Buchmiller hopes to have an established varsity program at Arizona by the time he graduates in May 2019. He’s been working to establish one for close to two years.

Having a dedicated facility for eSports is “almost a requirement,” Buchmiller said. “This is something we would love to setup in conjunction with a varsity program.”

Because the League club at UO is not a university-recognized varsity program, it is currently recognized solely as a club. Since it’s a club, it’s assigned a meeting room for weekly meetings, which is often a room in the basement of McKenzie.

Currently the eSports facility at Utah is a 900-square-foot room dedicated to training and competition, according to Dimick — much larger than the basement of McKenzie.

Peckham said it’s been difficult to recruit new members for the club due to the lack of tabling opportunities compared to fall term. Last term, there were up to 50 students at meetings, but because the rooms for meetings often change, the club is down to about 20 students.

David Gugliotti is a UO sports business graduate student that has been working with the Center for Student Involvement this year to move the club towards varsity status.

“There’s a lot more in this than I realized,” Gugliotti said. “There’s parameters around [donating and sponsorship] that I didn’t know were in place.”

Gugliotti has had meetings with Mandy Chong, the CSI Program Director, to discuss what it would take to go from a club to a varsity program.

“The meetings have been really informative and helpful,” Gugliotti said.

According to Chong, deciding whether the varsity program at UO would be under the Computer Science department or the Athletics Department is very much left up to the student organization and departments themselves.

“The departments would need to evaluate their ability to work with this club which would include assessing staff time, facilities, liability and more,” Chong said. The UO League club will have to meet the departments requirements in order to gain their support.

Being recognized by the university as either a club or a varsity program “really depends on what the students hope to accomplish and what their group purpose is,” Chong said.

Gugliotti says that it would be a long discussion about whether they would go with the computer science or athletics department.

Computer science would be better at getting physical support from people and finding a facility; however, athletics would be better at finding budget support, Gugliotti explained.

“At the end of the day,” Gugliotti said, “we want whichever department is willing to support our purpose more.”

Gugliotti and Peckham say that they want the club to grow into a program where prospective students come to the university for the eSports program, similar to the way they come here for sports.

UO was the fourth school to join the creation of PACG in December, according to Gugliotti.

Despite UO’s League club being one of the smallest eSports programs in the PACG, they’ve had a strong voice in the formation of the conference.

The club needs sponsorship for a facility, scholarships and equipment, and they’re navigating this complicated process with UO.

Meanwhile, Peckham and Gugliotti are always looking for more team members.

“The best way for students to get involved with the club is to come to the club and to contact or come talk to us,” Peckham said. “Come see what we’re all about and how we can help them become a part of our community.”

The post PACG: The future of college eSports appeared first on Emerald Media.

The Duck Nest Wellness Center is holding an Imposter Syndrome Workshop at 2 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the EMU room 041.

The Duck Nest is catering this event to students who have ever felt like they are not “smart enough” for their campus climate, according to the event’s Facebook page.

Imposter syndrome is defined as “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success,” according to the Harvard Business Review’s article on overcoming imposter syndrome.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong academically because after I’ve given my all to an assignment, I get it back with a C from my professor when I thought it was so much better than that,” said freshman Geneva Ortega.

According to the event’s Facebook page, the workshop will focus on teaching students how imposter syndrome works, strategies for increasing confidence, and ways to reduce self-doubt.

When students suffer from imposter syndrome they experience things like chronic self-doubt and “a sense of intellectual fraudulence that overrides any feelings of success or external sense of their competence,” according to the Harvard Business Review.

The post Duck Nest to host Imposter Syndrome Workshop Feb. 26 appeared first on Emerald Media.

On Wednesday, the Peace Corps released their 2018 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list, in which the University of Oregon ranked 12th.

The UO has been among top ranking universities for over a decade — 1,311 students have served in the Peace Corps since 1961, when the agency was established. This year’s ranking is based on the 55 UO students currently volunteering worldwide.

“Peace Corps service is a profound expression of the idealism and civic engagement that colleges and universities across the country inspire in their alumni,” said Acting Peace Corps Director Sheila Crowley.

Among states with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita, Oregon ranked fourth in 2017, and since 1961, more than 6,363 Oregonians have served worldwide, according to a press release from Peace Corps.

Currently serving as a Peace Corps health volunteer in South Africa, Gwen Cummings graduated from the UO in 2015.

“Oregon is a place that fosters growth in its students and encourages adventure and service,” Cummings said in the press release. “I think so many Ducks choose to become Peace Corps volunteers because they have the spirit to serve and the desire to experience new cultures and explore new places.”

Briana Whitehead, a UO graduate, served as a Peace Corps agroforestry volunteer in Ghana from 2014 to 2016, according to a 2017 Around the O article.

“It is the single most life-changing experience I have had,” said Whitehead. “Never again will I see the world in the same light. My self-worth and determination to make a difference in this world has gone through the roof.”

The Peace Corps also released an interactive map of volunteers along with the list on Wednesday.

“As Peace Corps volunteers, recent college and university graduates foster capacity and self-reliance at the grassroots level, making an impact in communities around the world,” said Crowley. “When they return to the United States, they have new, highly sought-after skills and an enterprising spirit that further leverages their education and strengthens their communities back home.”

The post UO ranks 12th in Peace Corps’ 2018 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities appeared first on Emerald Media.

Are you looking for help with resolving conflicts? There’s a new program on campus dedicated to just that.

The Student Conflict and Resolution Center (SCRC) is a new program at the University of Oregon. It “serves to facilitate positive change by transforming conflict into opportunity,” according to its mission statement.

The SCRC is a service available to all university incidental fee-payers starting in February, although an official open house is being planned for early March. The program provides a space for mediation, facilitation, coaching, training and workshops, restorative practices, and neutral observation.

Conflicts can include things like problems with roommates, neighbors, or landlords, arguments with friends or partners, difficulties with a supervisor, co-worker, student employee, or coach, and conflicts with a professor or advisor.

Mason Atkin, SCRC Program Coordinator, said that once they have a bigger staff, drop-in hours will be available but until then they will have a place online to schedule appointments.

The program is funded through incidental fees and is located on Agate Street and 17th Avenue, behind the Eugene Fire Department.

The SCRC is an “informal student-driven” program that serves as a first step for students in need of conflict resolution, Atkin explained. “We like to look at ourselves as resource experts,” said Atkin.

While the program offers case-by-case exceptions, the general policy is to only serve university incidental fee-payers. Exceptions include things like off-campus housing conflicts where one party is an incidental-fee payer.

“The policy is context dependent because our main purpose is to serve students, but we are somewhat flexible,” said Atkin.

The center is separate from the Conflict and Resolution Master’s Program at the UO, however, it will be staffed by interns from this master’s program. In the future, the SCRC hopes to include undergraduates as interns too, according to Atkin.

Atkin is a master’s student herself and is working with the new director of the SCRC, Jennifer Hudson, to get the program up and running for students. Hudson has worked with the Ombuds Program at UO since 2014 as an assistant ombudsperson.

The Ombuds Program and the SCRC are both conflict management services, and their offices are located next to each other. They differ in that the Ombuds Program is a confidential service and the SCRC is a private service.

Being a confidential service means that the Ombuds Program keeps very little records, which can’t be asked for by police or the university, and will never be shared, according to Atkin.

Since the SCRC is a private service, that means that they also keep very little records, which are destroyed after the case is closed but can only be shared through a legal or university service, if they demand it. “We do our best to mitigate [sharing records] by keeping as little records as possible,” said Atkin.

According to Atkin, the SCRC is “definitely a need,” and their success depends on how well they performed outreach to students, but they “expect to be well utilized.”

Provided by Mason Atkin, Program Coordinator at the Student Conflict Resolution Center.

The post New Student Conflict Resolution Center looks to be a “first step” for students in need appeared first on Emerald Media.

After mostly sunny days the past two weeks, it’s about to get cold.

The National Weather Service forecasts that starting Saturday night through Wednesday, Eugene temperatures will stay under 43 degrees.

Chances of snow showers starting on Sunday and through Monday will accompany the low-20-degree night-time weather. Snow is most likely to fall on Sunday with a forecasted low of 27 degrees, and a 70 percent chance of precipitation throughout the day.

Monday night is forecasted to have a low at 22 degrees, which would tie this year’s record low of 22 set this past Monday, according to the Eugene Airport National Weather Service Station

Tuesday is forecasted to be mostly sunny and have less precipitation; however, the low is forecasted to be around 22 degrees.

From now until Saturday night, high temperatures are forecasted to remain in the high 40s and low 50s, and the low temperatures are forecasted to remain between 35 degrees and 40 degrees. There is a 40 percent chance of rain on Friday and a 60 percent chance of rain on Saturday.

The post National Weather Service forecasts record-tying lows, chance of snow next week appeared first on Emerald Media.

Black History Month occurs every February and is dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the history, accomplishments and cultures of black Americans. In observance, the University of Oregon hosts several events throughout the month that offer opportunities for attendees to dive into lessons and conversations with experts, academics, and artists about current social justice issues and race in America. 

A talk and reception with Sam Bailey, the director and co-creator of HBO’s Emmy-nominated web series, “Brown Girls,” will take place in the EMU 145 Crater Lake South room at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8. The event is sponsored by the Cinema Studies Department.

Also on Thursday, the Labor Education & Research Center is sponsoring Pioneering a Living Legacy: Shaping Our Vision for Diversity and Inclusion in the Labor Movement. The event will be held at UO’s Portland White Stag Building 142/144 at 70 NW Couch Street at 6 p.m. It will include a viewing of the short film, “Sista in the Brotherhood,” followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Roberta Hunte.

On Friday, Feb. 9, the 8th Annual Black History Month Banquet, sponsored by Blacks in Government, will take place at the Valley River Inn in Eugene at 5:30 p.m. If you want to attend you must reserve a table or seat.

The UO Law School is sponsoring the Derrick Bell Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 5:30 p.m. They’re hosting Professor of Law, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies Jonathan A. Powell for the lecture in the Law School room 175. Professor Powell will hold a public reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. that day in the UO Law Commons.

The African Studies Lecture Series is sponsoring a lecture by Andre Djiffack called “Teaching and Researching on Mongo Beti.” The lecture will be in the Knight Library Browsing Room at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

Ducks After Dark will be showing “Marshall” on Thursday, Feb. 15 in the EMU Redwood Auditorium. Doors open at 8:15 p.m. and the movie starts at 9 p.m. The movie, rated PG-13,  is about Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

The 2018 Freedom Fund Dinner, sponsored by the Eugene/Springfield NAACP, will be at the Valley River Inn in Eugene at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. Tickets to attend are $80 per seat or $100 for a seat and an NAACP membership. The dinner is the NAACP’s main fundraiser, and this year’s event will be “a reflection of the National NAACP’s initiatives towards climate change, a 21st-century social justice and civil rights issues,” according to the event’s website.

On Saturday, Feb. 17, the Black Student Union is hosting an Excellence Gala in the Ford Alumni Center at 6 p.m.

The Labor & Education Research Center is sponsoring Bill Fletcher’s lecture, “Race & Labor: Building a More Just Economy,” on Tuesday Feb. 20 in Straub 145 at 4 p.m. Fletcher was the Education Director for the national AFL-CIO, the president of TransAfrica Forum and a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, according to the event brochure.

The Department of Art will sponsor Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’s “Scenes from ‘One Wall a Web’” lecture on Thursday, Feb. 22 in Lawrence 177 at 6 p.m. Wolukau-Wanambwa is a photographer, writer and teacher based in New York City. His lecture will be about the commonalities between pictures and words.

“Talking Black in America,” is a panel discussion, sponsored by the UO Linguistics Department, that will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Straub 156.

Black History Month events will conclude on Friday, Feb. 23, with the “Don’t Touch My Hair,” opening reception exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The post Here are some events you can attend for Black History Month this February appeared first on Emerald Media.

Saturday wasn’t University of Oregon student Jane Kissinger’s first time seeing a drag show, but she was excited to see student drag queens perform. For her, the LGBTQA3 Alliance at the UO — which hosted the show — gives her a chance to be herself.

“My hometown is very rural and very conservative, and I felt that as a lesbian, I didn’t have any space for community or for agency,” Kissinger said. “Being part of the QA3 gives me a place where I can be accepted and where I can express myself without any limitations.”

Show Host Karess Ann Slaughter laughs as she introduces the next performer. The LGBTQA3 Alliance holds its annual drag show at the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon on Febuary 3, 2018. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

The LGBTQA3 Alliance hosted its annual drag show on Saturday, and this year’s theme was “Dungeons and Drag Queens.” The revenue from the show will go to support scholarships and art supplies for youths attending the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s transgender summer camp.

Monique performs Shape of You. The LGBTQA3 Alliance holds its annual drag show at the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon on Febuary 3, 2018. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

Sherri Jones is the JSMA’s museum education program coordinator, and she says that she’s been working to reach out to the transgender youth community. She designed the week-long summer camp specifically for transgender and gender-questioning youths between first and eighth grade.

“It’s been a personal desire, and I have family and close friends that are in the queer community,” Jones said. “I think that it would be a really great way for the kids in our community to meet each other, maybe make new friends and just have a safe environment to do some art.”

Jones said that scholarships, art supplies and pay for art teachers are the big expenses that the camp faces.

“Art can be very healing and very community-building too,” Jones said.

Clarice San Carlos performs Dangerous Woman. The LGBTQA3 Alliance holds its annual drag show at the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon on February 3, 2018. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

Katharine Wishnia, a first-year biology major, has attended one other drag show in Portland, but this was her first show in Eugene.

“The performances were amazing, and I will absolutely go to another show,” Wishnia said.

Halfway through the show, performer Chartreuse proposed to her boyfriend, to whom she dedicated her first number — an original Star Trek-inspired song, “I Bring the Trek.”

Chartreuse performs I Bring the Trek. The LGBTQA3 Alliance holds its annual drag show at the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon on Febuary 3, 2018. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

Chartreuse is the 45th Debutante of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Emerald Empire, a community organization modeled after the national organization that was created by gay bar owners in early 1965 as a means to “stand in solidarity with one another under the pressure of police harassment,” according to the ISCEE’s website.

One of Chartreuse’s numbers was a tribute piece to transgender people that died due to hate crimes. Her dress was made of names of those who have been killed, and her piece was an original track that blended the voices of news announcers announcing the deaths of transgender individuals and the song “Praying” by Ke$ha.

“The performance was so tastefully done,” Wishnia said of Chatruese’s tribute performance.

Chartreuse performs a tribute to the recent fallen LGBT victims. The LGBTQA3 Alliance holds its annual drag show at the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon on Febuary 3, 2018. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

The post LGBTQA3 Alliance’s annual drag show raises money for transgender youth summer camp appeared first on Emerald Media.

Tim Peckham remembers being two years old and playing Super Mario 64. He’s been playing video games ever since then and is now the president of the League of Legends club at the University of Oregon.

The “League” club at UO is growing. After losing many members last year, Peckham and Tanner Peterson, club vice president, are focusing this year on rebuilding the club and making it known around campus. Part of the effort to rebuild the club includes having competitive matches with other university League clubs.

League is a multiplayer online battle arena created by Riot Games in 2009. Last year’s worldwide championships in China had a total of 73,552,808 streams, according to ESPN’s Esports Charts.

The League club meets every even-numbered week on Thursdays at 7 p.m., and they suggest bringing a laptop. The next meeting, Feb. 1, will be in the EMU in room 023. The League club has matches every Saturday that anyone can stream for free on the UO’s Twitch page.

The rebuilding effort comes after losing members last year, Peckham said. “But we’re really focusing on putting the pieces back together this year.”

League has gained so much global popularity, with money following, that there was a $4.6 million prize pool for the 2017 championship, according to the League website.

The club gained a boost of attention over winter break from ESPN Esports when they coordinated a league match-up with Boise State University that coincided with the Vegas Bowl. The match was broadcast on Boise State’s Twitch page, a website similar to YouTube. Peckham estimated a hundred live views during that competition.

Twitch is the livestream gaming website that all university League clubs use to broadcast matches to viewers.

According to Peckham, it’s been difficult to recruit new members for the club due to the lack of tabling opportunities compared to fall term. Last term, there were up to 50 students at meetings, but after the rooms for meetings have been switched back and forth, the club is down to about 10 students.

Last term, the club held auditions for its varsity and junior varsity teams, and its competition schedule coincides with the NCAA basketball season. This is the first season that UO has had competitive League teams.

“There’s the regular season, which started Jan. 15,” Peterson said. “There’s the north, south, east and west conference, also the Big Ten Network and the Peach Belt. We all compete in these conferences and it’s swiss format,” Peterson explained. Swiss format is when the first-ranked teams play the last-ranked, until only two teams remain.

Matches are against other five-person university League club teams and are best of three. On Saturday, UO’s Varsity team played Pasadena City College, where UO swept the series 2-0. The Varsity team consists of Jared Lawrence (Top), Feiran Chen (Jungle), Sam Cohen (Mid), Triston Rostocil (Bot) and Peterson (Support).

“We’re connected with every university in the Pac-12, and we talk to them directly and say, ‘Hey, do you guys want to play?’” Peckham said.

More than just video games

Peckham is a senior marketing major and Peterson is a junior computer science major. Together, they coordinate with other schools about matches or other events they would like to have, like the special match with Boise State.

After graduating, Peckham would like to work in marketing in Esports. Peckham said that while he’s been playing League for over five years, it’s not his favorite video game, and being part of this club is more like learning how to run an Esports business, which he’s hoping will lead him to his career.

Peckham’s favorite League champion is Thresh, who is a support champion that can throw chains out to grab from afar. Peckham has a personal rank of gold, and he’s been playing since his sophomore year of high school. Collegiate matches do not affect personal League ranks.

University of California – Irvine, Columbia College, University of Jamestown and the University of Utah are some of the more than 30 schools across the country that offer Esports scholarships and recruitment programs for student gamers.

“Some schools have varsity programs where kids get scholarships, have faculty dedicated to their Esports teams and a computer lab or an arena that they go to,” said David Gugliotti, a UO sports business graduate student that helps run the League club.

“Based on the work that I am doing,” Gugliotti said, “we’re going to be getting support, space and recognition much sooner than later from the university.”

The post League of Legends club hopes to gain momentum on campus appeared first on Emerald Media.

Voters said “yes” to Measure 101 on Tuesday night with over 765,000 ballots counted in early returns. Measure 101 was upheld with 61.43% of voters approving it.

Measure 101 approves a tax on hospitals and other healthcare providers, and is used to fund healthcare for low-income Oregonians. It was approved by Oregon lawmakers during the 2017 summer legislative session.

The federal government matches the money raised in Oregon, and that is used to fund Medicaid.

In October, Oregon Rep. Julie Parrish, and two fellow Republicans, Cedric Hayden and Sal Esquivel, successfully petitioned with 85,000 signatures to vote on a repeal of the healthcare tax in January.

They claimed that the tax would move to consumers, not insurance providers and hospitals like planned, and suggested that lawmakers find a different way to cut the cost of healthcare.

“If [Measure 101] were rejected, students would be responsible for medical bills, which could potentially pull students out of school to help their parents pay for bills as well,” said Sophia Deloretto-Chudy, the Vice President of the College Democrats, and an executive member of the Democratic Party of Lane County.

“Yes for Healthcare” is a campaign in support of keeping Measure 101 in place. The campaign held a ballot return viewing event at Falling Sky Pizzeria & Public House in the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon, where 40 to 50 community members and representatives anxiously awaited the results.

According to the campaign’s website, the money from Measure 101 “ensures every child in Oregon has access to healthcare, protects healthcare for working families, seniors and people with disabilities, and stabilizes healthcare costs and insurance premiums for people who buy their own insurance.”

A “yes” vote means that the more than one million Oregonians, including 400,000 children, insured through Measure 101 will remain insured.

Students insured by the Oregon Health Plan  — the state’s version of Medicaid  — don’t need to worry about the possibility of having to pay for their own insurance. Many students rely on their family’s Medicaid insurance to pay for medical bills while they focus on school, explained Miles Trinidad, a UO senior who is also involved with the PPAO.

Because of the “yes” vote, the “most vulnerable citizens have access to healthcare,” said Sierra Dameron, the Yes for Healthcare campaign organizer. “Healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” she said.

Val Hoyle is a Democratic former member of the Oregon House of Representatives representing District 14, which includes West Eugene, Junction City and Cheshire. Hoyle was at the “Yes for Healthcare” campaign event on Tuesday night.

“We stood up for seniors, disabled citizens, 400,000 children and more than one million Oregonians,” Hoyle said. “I am proud to be an Oregonian.”

The post Measure 101 tax on hospitals and other healthcare providers passes appeared first on Emerald Media.