A Mountain Dew AMP Game Fuel student Instagram challenge brings German gamers to campus for an in-person visit.

CANTON, NY (12/10/2019) Two professional League of Legends players and their manager from SK Gaming in Germany coached SUNY Canton's esports students over the weekend.

Last spring, SUNY Canton students entered an Instagram challenge to promote Mountain Dew's newest release, AMP Game Fuel. The visit from SK Gaming was the grand prize for the competition.

"The students were awe-struck after meeting some of their heroes from the professional gaming world," said Charles Murray, the college's esports coordinator. "I believe their lessons and their poise will have a lasting impact on our teams."

SUNY Canton currently has about a dozen students who play League of Legends competitively on two teams. The two players, Garrit Stukemeier (Phrenic) and Steven Chen (Reeker) each played on a team to scrimmage the other. Team manager René Spanier accompanied the teammates and discussed game strategy with college coaches. The visit was orchestrated by Mountain Dew AMP Game Fuel.

"We met dedicated players and great personalities, like ToastyTG [Alec Knowles], Joe [Canton], Kasey [Palmer] and many more," Spanier said in a tweet. "Let's stay in touch and maybe we can come around once more."

Knowles, who is a Graphic and Multimedia Design major from Parishville, said the experience was amazing for the team.

"Thank you so much for taking the time to come see us," he said. "On behalf of the League team here at SUNY Canton, it means the world to us to see such talented players and staff."

Stukemeier said that despite being a world-recognized professional player, his position on the team is much like any other job, but with different hours. In addition to playing video games 8 to 10 hours a day, players work out three times a week and meet with a sports psychologist to help them improve their performance.

Both Stukemeier and Chen were impressed with the college's $500,000 Esports Arena, which features state-of-the-art Alienware computers with high-speed, low-latency internet connections provided by Extreme Networks.