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arts & culture
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KANSAN.COM | MONDAY, OCT. 3, 2016
Aries
Taurus
and schedule actions. Follow a profitable opportunity
(March 21-April 19) Collaborate to grow your joint finances. Teamwork makes a difference. Abundance is available. Share resources, experience and talent. Make agreements,
(April 20-May 20) Negotiate and compromise to get a deal that works for both. Collaborate on a new assignment. Sort out resources, and sweeten the pitch. It could get romantic.
Gemini
(May 21-June 20) Slow to avoid accidents and finish faster. There's plenty of demand for your attention. Keep cool, and the intensity passes. Appreciate what you have. True love is revealed.
love is revealed.
Cancer
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
(June 21-July 22) Look at things from a new perspective. Follow a strong attraction. Put your talent to work. Combine delectable flavors, visuals, fragrance and music to express your love
express your love.
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22) Home and family have your attention. Share concerns with someone you trust. Solutions may require physically moving things around. The gentle approach works best. Start from balance
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Turn on your creativity.
Walk outdoors for inspiration.
Listen to music and poetry.
Think in terms of color,
rhythm and style. A partner
spurs you to action.
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Review the budget to get clear on expense priorities. Research new methodologies. Cajole someone into paying up. Keep the faith. You can accomplish great things. Follow through.
Scorpio
. 23-Nov. 21'
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) You know what you what and how to get it. Entertain a personal dream. A loved one spurs you on. Leap over fences. It could be magical.
Sagittarius
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Clean, organize and plan your steps and goals.
Strengthen foundations for later action. Stay sensitive to a loved one's wishes, while remaining true to yourself. Invest possibilities
Capricorn
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Your friends are your inspiration. Have fun together.
You don't have to start from scratch; build on what others have started. Make beauty a priority.
Aquarius
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
A professional opportunity tempts. Persistent actions are required. Prepare materials, and apply yourself.
Polish your presentation.
A friend can teach you what you need. Take new
territory
Pisces
(Feb. 19-March 20)
Sate your curiosity. Get adventurous and explore.
Make harmony a goal with your partner. Achieve a new level of understanding together. Improvise. Adapt as you go.
Students enter virtual arena with eSports
Graduate student Deric Marr hosts a monthly meeting for his eSports organization, KU LoL.
► JULIAN CANTWELL
@watcolour
@watcolour
Julian Cantwell/KANSAN
When you think about sports, you probably think of physical activity. A heavy amount of college life is dominated by a sports-centric atmosphere that is carried from dorm to dorm, throughout every hall, and into every aspect of student lifestyle. But a new wave of competition is edging its way in. Replacing footballs and basketballs with mice and keyboards, what is known as "eSports" is very quickly finding a home in the hearts and minds of students across the nation, including the University.
ESports, or electronic sports, is centered around competitive gaming at various levels of competition. Kristian Sheu, president of the KU Gaming Community (KUGC), describes eSports as people playing video games at high levels, which he said KUGC is able to facilitate.
"We want to expose people to eSports by helping them get on or make teams, make road trips to go watch events like EVO or DreamHack, or be inspired to be a part of the whole community," Sheu said.
The largest eSport worldwide is the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
And that whole community is vast. Around the nation, collegiate teams are already competing in weekly series against one another, with Jayhawk gamers right in the midst. Play in the college scene, much like the professional counterpart, is dominated by three games in particular: "League of Legends," "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "Overwatch."
(MOBA) "League of Legends" developed by Riot Games. Commonly referred to as "LoL," it is the most played and most watched eSport in the world. The developers of the game have created a massive industry for its professional play and are now beginning to extend that success to the collegiate level with the "ULoL Campus Series," a league that university teams qualify to compete in, best described as the NCAA for "League of Legends." KU ULOL, headed by senior Kyle Larson and graduate student Deric Marr, hope to compete in the league's second year, even though the club is relatively new.
"The club is young. It was generated out of a group of people last year who got together for tournaments that Kyle and I hosted. We got official support from Riot Games last spring as their registered KU ULoL club, too late to compete, though," Marr said. "That being said we hope this year to send our best players to compete in the qualifiers and make it into the 2016-17 circuit for ULoL. This year the featured event we
are trying to coordinate is a combined local ULoL tournament featuring teams such as Washburn, Wichita State, Kansas State, KU and more."
With such growing interest in "League of Legends," universities are jumping on board with eSports. Larson said in the last two years the LOl developers have raised the legitimacy of their competition, and schools are buying in.
"In light of this increase in legitimacy, 22 schools have offered scholarships to high-level players to compete for them," Larson said. Wichita State has been holding conferences to increase involvement in the developing eSports scene."
Tespa, a network of college clubs across North America, is the larger organization that KUGC affiliates itself withs Sheu said. Being a Tespa school allows them to compete against Canadian universities, Kansas State and the University of Missouri, among others And with it comes a lot of opportunity and support.
"Think more like a coed fraternity, but owned by Blizzard Entertainment,
and still student run," Sheu said. "They support us with prize support and a platform to grow on, with a cornucopia of other chapters and outside help to coordinate events with, and team up with to tackle bigger things, like Varsity eSports, web streaming, community growth outside of KU Gaming."
We want tc
expose people to eSports by helping them ... be inspired to be a part of the whole community."
Kristian Sheu KUGC president
With the interest for and the support of eSports continuously growing, it looks like the future is bright.
"It's rising so fast because most of the [pro] players that you see now, they all came from our age group, so companies are putting money into it to make it grow for the sake
of pro eSports," Sheu said. "But also because the demand for it in college is growing as well, kids from the 90s want to play video games in college and eSports is the best way for some students to say my school is the best in the nation. Another reason is that some people want to be like the actual sports athletes on campus, but don't have that skill, but they have that skill in gaming, so it's just something that looks really favorable."
And that seems to be a consensus between group leaders. Larson said he believes as long as there is continued support from developers like Riot, Blizzard and Valve, the ceiling for eSports is massive.
"I see no doubt in eSports' potential to rise on its own pedestal as a full-on spectator sport on the same level as traditional sports. As an organizer for events on the KU campus I've been in contact with people with a passion for making League of Legends a legitimate spectator event," Larson said.
Freshmen attempt to break onto music scene
► MATTHEW HARVEY
@MattHVOICE
Andrea Ringenberg/KANSAN Freshmen Zarin Jerrins, also known as Zarin Michael (left), and Sydney Smith, also known as Sydney August (right), continue to raise their profiles in the music world with help from frequent collaborations with other up-and-coming artists.
With new faces constantly coming and going in the crowded music scene, it can be difficult to establish yourself as a standout artist. Two University freshmen — Zarin Micheal and Sydny August — are trying to become some of those new faces.
Micheal is an up-and-coming rapper, singer and songwriter from Kansas City, Mo. He not only raps, but also plays the piano and hopes to start his own record label, he said. However, Micheal is a relative newbie to the rap scene, as he's only been seriously pursuing a career for about a year and half.
"I had always done freestyles and stuff with my friends just for fun, it was their encouragement that opened me up to my potential," Micheal said. "I had done little YouTube videos and wrote a little for fun but I didn't plan on taking it to that next level."
Micheal said he has a very particular way in which he approaches writing each track.
"I start off with the hook and base my verses off of that. I try to tell stories, tell
the truth and capture different experiences," he said.
Micheal's influences include a choice group of artists both past and present, from Drake and Kanye West to Pink Floyd and Otis Redding.
"I like to draw different genres into my music and create something that people haven't heard before," Micheal said.
The rapper has a catalog of about nine songs, including his most recent single "I Might," a party ballad which gained over 32,000 SoundCloud plays in about two months, becoming his most popular record to date.
Micheal has participated in numerous collaboration shows and is looking forward to opening for Lil Uzi Vert in Kansas City, Mo. on
Micheal said his ability to jump right into the scene was not only due to his own ambition but also the help of his manager Jesse Brown. But Micheal plans on keeping his career in his own hands by not signing to a major label. He wants to start his own.
Nov. 2.
"I want it to be like the next Def Jam," Micheal said. "I want to help other artists get their music heard and give them some tips that I've learned."
Sydney August is another freshman pursuing a career in music while at the University. She began with music the same way many do: with piano lessons. She would later go on to learn guitar, which she often plays in her own music. August
also took vocal lessons in middle school where she got her start singing in school shows.
Though she showed interest in music at an early age, August said she didn't truly begin pursuing her career until just over a year ago. Early on, she chose not to confine herself to any specific genre.
emotions. August is a Chicago native and she said the city's influence on her artistry is undeniable.
"I had to find a way to express my feelings. Without that break-up, a lot of my songs wouldn't have happened," August said.
"I'm still finding my sound and I'm honestly open to doing whatever," August said.
"The Chicago music scene is so important," August said. "All of my producers and most of my collaborators are from home too."
August said her music is influenced just as much by her environment as her
She said she finds it difficult to adhere to any single genre because she finds her inspiration in a variety of genres, including R&B, country and acoustic rock. She said her muse is sometimes random thoughts that her mind stumbles over and sometimes her own experiences.
For example, her most popular song "Over," which has 20,000 views on Sound-Cloud, is less of a break-up song and more like a diss record to an ex-boyfriend.
August said she gets fueled by seeing artists like Chance the Rapper blow up but also by the efforts of other up-and-coming artists that she does much of her work with. Last weekend, she performed with other artists at a Girls Get Loud event in her hometown to raise money for Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"The Hillary event was a great experience," August said. "I hope I was able to inspire some of the other young girls that were there."
While in the city, August was also able to work on a video for her song "Dreamcatcher," which is scheduled to release soon.
August is currently working on her first EP and has not yet set a release date. For the five- to six-song-long project, she said she wants to create a theme that will make the songs tell a story.
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