TEXARKANA, Texas — The Texas A&M University Texarkana esports teams are getting ready to begin their 2026-2027 season starting next week.
According to A&M TXK Esports Head Coach and Recruiter, Rick Allen, there are 50 students on its roster with 20 of them being recruited to join this year.
“I’ve got 50 people rostered. Of those 50 people, I’d say about 40 of them are actual competitors who are pushing buttons playing the game. 10 of those are production and casting,” Allen said. “And then above and beyond that there’s other production people. We’ve got our gamer girl club, which Sykora grew to 30 young ladies this year.”
IRacing, Marvel Rivals, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rocket League, Overwatch and Apex Legends will be played weekly this semester, 2026.
The IRacing season for Wesley Shaw began in August, and he will be playing every Monday. Marvel Rivals and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be played on Tuesday.
“Collegiately, overall, we’re always pretty strong for the collegiate IRacing season. I think we did pretty solid,” Shaw said. “We’re rising through the range every season. I try to do better and better and better. That’s my goal always is to just strive to do better every day, every season.”
On Wednesdays, Jonathan Galdamez will lead the Rocket League team as their captain. Last year, the team went undefeated for most of the year.
“I would say this season, we’re focusing a lot more on our overall team cohesion and just overall team morale compared to last year,” Galdamez said. “A lot of practice, a lot of going over replays and just professional replays too, being able to break down, figure out different strategies that we want to do going into the coming season.”
Overwatch 2 will be played on Fridays and a day for Apex Legends has not been set. This year’s captain for Apex Legends is Brandon Augustus, who has been playing the game for about six years.
“I enjoy it [being captain]. It allows me to take on more responsibility and allows me to better myself outside of the game as well, becoming a better communicator and a better leader. Those aspects that’ll help me all throughout life,” Augustus said. “My main focus is just playing together, getting those reps in so we can have that chemistry, and so we can all be on the same page come match day.”
Next semester, 2027, will see the addition of two games to the roster, Rainbow Six: Siege and Madden. Rainbow Six: Siege made it to 2026 spring playoffs and the team captain, Jacob Wardlow, is getting ready for the season.
“My season will start next semester. I’m going through two different reigns of tryouts. Once I get my full roster to figure it out, we will be scrimmaging and practicing a lot,” Wardlow said. “I’m looking forward to hopefully getting back into the swing of things and hopefully getting a championship because we were very close last year.”