The dawn of the CMS esports era
Plus: Chicken intrigue in Cotswold; New credit union shares name; Layoffs looming in Wells mortgage unit?; Panthers fire more coaches; In case you haven't heard, an election is tomorrow
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‘Wednesday Night Lights’: Not convinced esports deserve the same attention as football or swimming? Watching CMS teams battle in their first matchups might change your mind.
Even for video game novices, watching teens from different high schools compete in fast-paced playing is entertaining. More than 500 CMS students signed up to play in the inaugural league, and about 100 were picked to play at the varsity, junior varsity and club level for their schools.
by Cristina Bolling
A piece of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools history unfolded Wednesday night, as an entirely new athletic program was on display for the first time — one without sweaty uniforms or crowded bleachers.
The CMS Varsity esports and STEM League kicked off their preseason games on the livestream platform Twitch — a league that was created out of a partnership among Stiegler EdTech, Carolina Esports Hub and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, along with CMS.
On Wednesday night, teams from 12 different CMS high schools battled it out in the game Rocket League (imagine a game of soccer being played by sports cars instead of humans), and it was hard not to be fascinated — perhaps not by the students’ technical skills, but because how often do you get to witness the debut of a sport?
The night also included a competition by the schools’ STEM teams to see who could design the best team jersey and logo using computer design technology.
If you’d like to see last Wednesday night’s competitions — or any of the Wednesday night competitions as the season unfolds — you can watch them on the YTAC Nation Twitch Channel. (Wednesday’s six games lasted a total of 3 ½ hours, so you’ll need to use the navigation bar at the bottom to scroll for the games you want to watch.)
Here are some observations and lessons we learned by watching — and proof that you don’t need to be a gamer to follow and enjoy the games.
🎮 Toss any preconceived notions about which schools do best in athletics out the window — esports is a different animal.
With most traditional sports, a team from a brand-new school like Palisades High School wouldn’t stand a chance against a large and established athletic program like Providence High School. But on Wednesday, Palisades High, which just opened in August, cleaned Providence’s clock, winning 3 of 4 matches.
Palisades had esports team members who had been playing together since before the league was announced, so they’d already jelled as a team and were able to work together better to score more points. (I know this because the commentators talked about the backgrounds of the teams during the games. You can’t hear the players talk during the game — or even learn their real names. Only their screen names are shown during play — names like “NUTELLA7GOD” and “JULCOP12.”)
🎮 The commentating is legit — and one of the commentators Wednesday was a Charlotte city councilman. You wouldn’t know just by listening to the games that this was esports. The commentators sound like pro football or soccer talking heads, and they provide both color and play-by-play as the games unfold. The commentating has all the features of watching professional sports — sports jargon, yelling during close plays and team background information mixed in.
The two lead commentators on the YTAC Nation Twitch stream introduced themselves at the beginning of the night by their screen names — “Bearlights” and “Discounts.” (I wished they’d told us their real names and a little about themselves.) Other commentators dropped in during the night.
The commentating team included Charlotte city councilman Tariq Bokhari. (Fun fact: his screen name is “Overlord.”) Bokhari was part of the team that worked to create the CMS esports league, and he was an essential part of the commentating team Wednesday, weaving in fun facts about the high schools like what year they opened and notable alumni.
Commentators went nuts as South Mecklenburg’s team sank the ball into Hough’s net in the final second of their second match, tying the game at 3-3 and sending them into overtime.
“It bounces back to the net — and now South Meck scores!”
“Unbelievable! It’s crazy! That never should have happened in the first place!”
“Incredible punch!”
“I’m shaking my head with Hough — you didn’t have to touch it.”
“That’s why you play until the clock is completely dead. Even though it says zero, that doesn’t mean it’s over, [as] we’ve said before. Wow, it’s unbelievable what just happened!”
🎮 The league is about more than esports — STEM is also a major component. Esports may be what draws more eyeballs to the broadcasts — there were 1,020 views on the event on YTAC Nation Twitch channel as of Sunday morning — but each school also has a STEM team, which will have challenges each week that are judged between esports games.
The STEM part of Wednesday night’s competition included a challenge to see who could design the best team logo and jersey. One of the judges for that competition was Jake Burns, chief commercial officer at Tepper Sports & Entertainment.
🎮 Commentators clearly knew there were some dubious audience members — and they worked to win them over.
Early in the evening, Bokhari was hitting hard the point that yes, this was a real sport, and the ways in which esports provide kids with many of the same elements that traditional sports provide.
“For folks out there that are tuning in for the first time and wondering, ‘Uh, what is this? Is this for real?’ This has a lot of the same aspects of regular, physical, traditional varsity sports: communication, teamwork, practice, leadership,” Bokhari said. “All key elements that you have to learn as you get better and better at this.”
He drove the point home again later in the broadcast: “For a lot of the parents who might be tuning in saying ‘video games? What’s that about?’ Number one, your kids don’t get to play unless they do well in school, pass the tests and have your permission to play. Another big thing is … they’re sitting there and they’re learning how to communicate. … The bad teams don’t communicate at all. The good teams are communicating a little bit. … The great teams are communicating what’s about to happen.”
Want to watch? Check out the CMS varsity esports games for free on https://www.twitch.tv/ytacnation, starting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights through the fall semester, which ends Jan. 24. (You don’t have to watch them live — you can watch the recorded games afterward on the same link.) You can also check out a 1 1/2-minute highlight reel of Wednesday night’s games on this YouTube link.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
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Cotswold chicken intrigue: Chick-fil-A wanted to buy Bojangles site for expansion — but Bo said no, Chick-fil-A says
Chick-fil-A’s Cotswold location, which notoriously causes traffic back-ups on Randolph Road, explored the possibility of buying the adjacent and closed Bojangles to help alleviate traffic congestion.
But Bojangles wouldn’t agree to sell, a Chick-fil-A representative said last week.
At a neighborhood meeting Thursday to discuss Chick-fil-A’s rezoning plans, a resident asked Chick-fil-A officials why they don’t just buy the Bojangles and design a site that better accommodates cars. Chad Ross of Chick-fil-A corporate responded: “We’ve been trying, and I think there’s — it’s a chicken thing, maybe. Not in Charlotte. They said if it was someplace else, but not on their home turf.”
Stacey McCray, senior director of communications for Charlotte-based Bojangles, told The Ledger in an emailed statement:
Our Bojangles location on Randolph Road has long been a very successful restaurant, and we have no plans on selling the property to anybody in the near future. That location is closed temporarily for a significant remodel that will allow us to provide an even better experience to loyal Bojangles fans in Cotswold and the surrounding area.
She didn’t say when the renovations might start. The Cotswold Bojangles has been shut for nearly a year with a “closed for remodel” sign but no indications of any work.
Chick-fil-A plans to knock down its restaurant in Cotswold and rebuild it as a drive-thru-only location. Officials said a more efficient kitchen and the capacity to accommodate five more cars on the property would help solve the spillover onto Randolph Road. Some residents were concerned about the prospect of increased traffic from the back of the property, by Colwick Avenue, near single-family homes. A public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21, with a City Council decision expected in December or January. —TM
Related Ledger article:
New Skyla Credit Union shares its name with a Pokémon character and an IUD
Skyla, Skyla and Skyla: (L to R) Bayer IUD named Skyla; Pokémon gym leader named Skyla; branch of Charlotte-based Skyla Credit Union.
After our piece last week on the Charlotte Metro Credit Union’s new name — “Skyla Credit Union” — several astute Ledger readers wrote in to say they found the name to be a head-scratcher.
They pointed out that if you Google the name “Skyla,” the first search result is an intrauterine device (IUD). The Skyla, by pharmaceutical company Bayer, is described on Bayer’s website as a “small, T-shaped device that’s placed in your uterus by your healthcare professional” that “provides continuous, highly effective birth control.”
An additional search result reveals that Skyla is also the name of a crop top-wearing female character in the game Pokémon — “a pilot who is the Gym Leader of Mistralton City’s Gym.”
Our readers observed:
“Such a funny name for a credit union. The first thing I think of and the first thing that comes up in Google is the IUD. Maybe no women helped choose that name?”
“I’d been meaning to ask who concocted Skyla and for how much. ... And was it named in honor of an IUD?”
We were unable to get any new information from Skyla (the credit union, not the IUD) on Friday.
We reported in our article that Skyla Credit Union president and CEO Eric Gelly gave this explanation behind the new name:
We were looking for a name that was welcoming, and in the world that we’re in today, you can’t trademark actual words, so you have to get a bit more creative. It’s fun to say. It’s short. It’s easy to pronounce. It fits all the things we’re looking for in a name.
The brand was created in partnership with Brevard-based branding agency Tungsten (which is also the name of a chemical element used in metal alloys).
Tungsten (the branding company, not the element) describes the process behind choosing “Skyla” on its website:
After a comprehensive interview process and thorough analysis, the Tungsten team curated and facilitated multiple rounds of naming candidates. The focus of the discussions turned towards names that highlighted possibility, with the notion of elevating and achieving their customers' financial hopes and dreams. To capture that sense of upward progress and financial mobility, Tungsten curated invented names with expansive qualities. The winning result was Skyla, a name that resonates with hope, optimism and opportunity. The name elevates the brand while positioning the organization for a digital and cloud-based future.
Devising original names is actually harder that you might think. It’s easy to be critical of new names. Over time, as they become familiar, the critiques evaporate. We recall the names “Atrium” and “Truist” also raising eyebrows, but now they are accepted parts of our lexicon. —CB, TM
Related Ledger article:
“What ‘Truist Bank’ can learn from ‘Atrium’” (June 19, 2019)
You might be interested in these Charlotte events
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
Wednesday: Topgolf Tournament, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Topgolf Charlotte University.
Not your traditional golf outing! - Fun for all skill levels! - No golf experience is required! - More networking and interaction time! Event space adjacent to golf bays for networking, breakfast, lunch, display tables, and awards presentations. $125 & up.
Thursday: Impact 704 Academy, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Camp North End. Learn how to help shape our future! Sustain Charlotte’s new FREE Impact 704 Academy is back with a deep dive into transportation. This advocacy-focused series, supported by Southminster, starts at 6 p.m. Nov. 10 at Camp North End. Free.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief:
More Panthers coaches fired: The Carolina Panthers announced this morning that the team has fired cornerbacks coach Evan Cooper and defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni, following a 42-21 loss Sunday at the Cincinnati Bengals. (Panthers)
Mortgage layoffs at Wells? With interest rates rising, workers at Wells Fargo are bracing for layoffs as new mortgage loans have largely dried up, CNBC reported, citing anonymous sources. The number of loans in the retail origination pipeline was down 90% in October, compared with the same period in 2021, when the housing boom was in full swing. (CNBC)
Duke Energy selling renewables: Charlotte-based Duke Energy said it plans to sell its division that operates solar and wind farms, to focus on its regulated commercial utilities business. (WFAE)
$1B fine for Wells Fargo? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking a record $1B fine against Wells Fargo to settle a series of investigations covering automobile lending, consumer-deposit accounts and mortgage lending, according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg News.
Lobbying for CMS superintendent job: Dennis Williams, the pastor of Faith Memorial Baptist Church and leader of the African American Faith Alliance for Educational Advancement, has lobbied school board candidates to name him as superintendent if they win, according to anonymous sources who talked to The Charlotte Observer. The Faith Alliance has been critical of CMS leadership. (Observer)
In memoriam: Coy Gibbs, son of NASCAR owner and NFL coach Joe Gibbs, passed away Saturday night at age 49, Joe Gibbs Racing said Sunday. He was part owner of Joe Gibbs Racing and died in his sleep. (WBTV)
Hot dogs, BBQ, ax-throwing: Cotswold Village Shops will be the first Charlotte location of Crave Hot Dogs and BBQ. The chain’s menu features smoked brisket, pulled chicken and pulled pork, and the restaurants have self-serve beer walls. A sign at Cotswold also says “ax-throwing.” (Crave)
Election time: Polls are open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. On the ballot are races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, the General Assembly, county commission, school board and more! Details: Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project