corn: "Don’t quit school to go compete"

Concluding Dust2.us' coverage of DreamHack Dallas, Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore spoke with former Davenport University collegiate player Tommy "corn" Eckhart regarding his current status since the dissolution of the team's D1 program, his thoughts on collegiate as an avenue for success for young players, and balancing earning a degree with competing in CS:GO.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

You've been out of a team since the demise of Davenport University's team. What have you been up to since then?

I decided that I needed time for myself to take a break. I think that's something in esports, we don't really give each other the benefit of the doubt, and we don't give [that to] ourselves. It's always you need to grind, you need to keep playing, always year-round. The way our seasons work, it's just constant. Since everything that happened with Davenport, I was going to join the rebuild, Classless, which is now Detonate. I was going to play with them, but then I was like, okay, I need time to just reset myself and come back. i didn't feel like I could be the best teammate I could be, so I just decided that I'm gonna chill. I'll come back eventually.

Davenport University's program did not work out as many expected. Does that change your perspective on collegiate as a way for NA to advance, or is it still a potential way forward for NA players?

I still think it's a great way forward. Unfortunately with Davenport, I won't get into specifics, it was a lot of little stuff that builds up over time. Whether it was, and I don't like to pin the blame on one person, and we're not going to do that because that would be wrong, it was the players, the management, everyone together making small mistakes that compounded into it falling apart. I still think generally collegiate is a way forward. I know we have Northwood that's doing a good job, shoutout to them, those guys are great. Fisher College is coming in an picking up a CS team, also shoutout to them.

I think it's a really great way, especially considering the lack of opportunities that we have, it's a great way to have a backup plan. Too many people just think that they can make it work, like "I'm the 1%, I'm the difference-maker". We can't all be that. Not everyone is that. Have a backup plan and get your degree in case something happens. Even if you do you make it, having a backup plan and having a degree just in case don't work out is just better, better for your life in general and career safety.

What is your advice to someone who is young and might earn a scholarship to play esports?

Don't put all your eggs into one basket. Even with some people at Davenport felt like they were there to play on D1, get the ECL experience, and then go off and join another ECL team, go to ECL playoffs, go to LANs, and stuff. That's not realistic. What we were there for was to get our education while we were playing on a decent team. To the people out there, I would say that you can keep competing while you pursue your degree. It doesn't have to be one or the other, you can manage both. With that, you need to manage both. Don't put all your eggs into one basket, don't put off all your schoolwork.

You have to do both and manage both at the same time. With that comes having less time for yourself, and that's where burnout comes in, so it's all a balancing act, an ebb and flow of things you're trying to manage. It's doable. I would just say don't quit school to go compete. It may have worked for players like Stewie2k and stuff, but we're not in the same era as we had back then.