Since its inception and humble beginnings back in 2022, the Marshalltown Community College (MCC) eSports program has given both its athletes and their supporters plenty to celebrate with 33 national championships to their credit and countless memories made in the process. On Saturday night, 11 of the individuals who have played a part in creating this culture of excellence were officially inducted as the inaugural members of the MCC eSports Hall of Fame.

According to Head Coach and Marshalltown native Nate Rodemeyer, every inductee must have either won a national championship in a 1 v. 1 competition, been a captain of a championship team or even have won multiple titles. The first thing he tells the students, he said, is to be “loud and proud.”

“Be loud and proud means that you guys are doing something that’s truly incredible, something wonderful and, when we started, something that was new — something that, in a lot of communities, is still kind of misunderstood or sometimes frowned upon,” he said. “And so we wanted them to be loud and proud of what they’ve done, and I have seen that pride develop over the last three years. And going into year four, man, our pride is all over this campus.”

There are now 90 students involved in the program (the number was around 18 when it started), and he praised them for lending their time to other events on campus such as the large high school cross country meet last Thursday. The other main piece of advice the coaches share with the team is “play your game,” which applies not only to eSports but academics and being a member of the larger community.

Rodemeyer passed the microphone to Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) Director of eSports Andrew Goforth, who credited the people in the room for the success of the program, with one garnering special praise. Amber Lawthers, a Marshalltown native who is now competing at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, put MCC on the map when she won the national championship in Mario Kart during the first year, and 30 more people signed up to play for the team in a two-week span.

Samuel Geller, who coached the Overwatch 2 team, came all the way from Canada to deliver the keynote address and reflect on his journey to MCC.

“It’s been phenomenal to watch the growth of these individuals and watch them go from being these angsty teenagers and growing into some potentially fine adults — we’ll see, still yet to be seen in some cases,” he said. “But seriously, thank you all for listening to us as coaches. We want nothing more than to see you guys improve at everything, and the fact that you actually listen to us as old people, we really appreciate it.”

After he was inducted first, Rodemeyer, Goforth, Geller and assistant coach Max Pietrzak took turns sharing stories of each hall of famer — Lawthers, Jesus Silva Enriquez, Shontario “Miz” Dudley, Ryne Sinn, Ethan Hassin, Paul Novotny, Ryan Goulding, Nathan Jorgensen, Lijah Powell and Ethan McGerr. In conclusion, Rodemeyer remarked that taking on his role with the MCC program as a coach and eSports management professor changed his life and came at a perfect time, when he was living in Williamsburg and had a desire to pursue a full time job in eSports closer to his hometown.

“It was like the stars were aligning. I had just said I want to go do this thing full time if I can, and it’s in my hometown and we were looking for a reason to get back close to family. And the rest is history,” he said. “The hours are long… for all of us. We pour our blood, sweat and literal tears into this program every single season. But we wouldn’t give this up for the world, and I just wanted to thank all the players past, present and future from the very bottom of my heart and thank all of the family and friends and all the people that are in this room. This room is almost full, and that’s amazing.”

At the conclusion of the hall of fame ceremony, the event moved to the new console lounge at the former site of the campus bookstore, which is separate from the nearby eSports arena where players primarily practice on PCs.

“We had such a big program and so many players that are playing things like Smash Brothers and Mario Kart that they really needed their own dedicated space,” Rodemeyer said. “They now have their own dedicated room… And then the other cool thing about this room is the front half has kind of more lounge style seating and it’s open to the student public when we are not in competition or practice.”

The bookstore has moved online, and MCC merchandise has moved into the library where the Tiger Shop is already located.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or