Nigel Roberts
Apr 7, 2023
The organizers are on a mission to promote racial diversity in the lucrative gaming industry.
Howard University’s esports team brought home the $80,000 top prize at the 2023 Mountain Dew Real Change Challenge tournament held February in Atlanta, the university’s newspaper The Hilltop reports.
The Bison team, dubbed “Cold Steel,” displayed its resilience and determination to win the tournament that began in November, as Cold Steel squared off against other talented HBCU programs. Deante Taylor, a senior marketing major, told The Hilltop that the team “had no proper system setups, no proper equipment. We were even on dorm Wi-Fi” in the first round of the tournament.
Mountain Dew partnered with HBCU Esports League to create the MTN DEW Real Change Challenge tournament, a nationwide competition involving 16 HBCU student teams, according to a press release. The teams battled each other in the popular game Call of Duty, a first-person shooter series of video games that began in 2003.