Andy Roland
Dakota State Esports Head Coach
5th Season
E-mail: Coach Roland
Andy Roland is entering his fifth season as Dakota State University Esports head coach. He is the first Esports head coach in program history.
The esports program began in the fall of 2019 with various games and varsity/junior varsity levels of competition. DSU Esports’ first year was a great success with various games making their marks against numerous schools, mostly NCAA Division I schools. DSU formed several different teams that included nearly 100 athletes: League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Smite, Rainbow 6, CS:GO, Heartstone, Heroes of the Storm, and MtGA.
Two Esports games were added to the 2020-21 season, VALORANT and Call of Duty.
Roland plays an integral role in forming a new collegiate conference in VALORANT and League of Legends, starting in 2020-21. DSU is a member of the newly formed five-member conference called Collegiate Champions League (CCL) with Texas Christian University, University of Montana, South Dakota State and South Dakota Mines.
In 2019-20, Dakota State’s Overwatch team reached ‘Top 8’ in consecutive qualifying brackets early with TESPA and would eventually make a run in the postseason until COVID-19 pandemic derailed the remaining games in 2020.
The Trojan Rainbow 6 squad fought all year long in two national tournaments that brought in a ton of attention. Some notable matches victories were against the University of Tennessee and the University of Kansas, showing that DSU’s position among some of top schools in the nation.
Dakota State League of Legends traveled west river to take on NCAA Division II South Dakota Mines in an in-house tournament during the 2019-20 academic season, where the Trojans fell short in the quarterfinals against South Dakota State.
The Rocket League team has flown under the radar but continues to be one of the most active and largest rosters in DSU’s Esports programs.
Other honorable mentions included the Trojans’ Heartstone team, Heroes of the Storm, and Magic the Gathering Arena who all had historic seasons. The Heroes of the Storm and Magic the Gathering teams proved to be top contenders in the nation by finishing within the top 10 of their respective national tournaments. Heroes of the Storm squad lost in the semifinals to the University of Texas, while the Magic the Gathering squad fell to Syracuse after knocking off the nationally ranked No. 5 University of Michigan.
The fighting scene had one of the most productive seasons for Dakota State. DSU hosted the largest Smash tournament in South Dakota history at the Trojan Center Underground where over $1,000 in prizes were handed out during the 2019-20 season.
Dakota State also attended and fought in the world’s largest Smash Ultimate tournament held in downtown Detroit in 2019-20. All Trojan fighters competed and Zach Tchida finished within the top 20 percent in the world.
Roland grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He began his collegiate career at Roosevelt (Ill.) University in Chicago on a soccer scholarship before transferring to Texas Christian University (TCU) to begin his esports journey.
TCU did not have an esports organization on campus. During Roland's sophomore year, he campaigned for an organization and gathered enough interest to charter TCU Esports under his direction. In their first year of operation, TCU fielded two distinguished teams – League of Legends (LoL) and Overwatch. He was one of the integral members of the team that received an award for most outstanding student organization.
In TCU's first year of competition, Roland's varsity LoL team placed third in the American Collegiate Esports League (ACEL). After their first year, Roland was named as the regional coordinator for the Central Esports Conference where he would oversee eight universities.
He had to step down from his starting varsity roster spot to manage season proceeding for ACEL as well as TCU's esports organization. Roland has experience managing teams in the Challenger, Masters, and Grandmasters tiers of League of Legends. He has connections to some of today's top streamers and esports athletes which will help develop skills and opportunities for DSU students.
He graduated from Texas Christian University in December 2018 with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science.
