Leveling up: Clinton’s Jeffers inks historic e-sports deal with Winthrop
Wyatt Jeffers, center, became the first student in Anderson County to earn an e-sports scholarship. Jeffers will continue his academic and e-sports career at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Wyatt Jeffers will attend Winthrop University in South Carolina, where he will join the school’s competitive gaming team.
“I may be the first person in the Southeast Region to sign to compete in e-sports, and I am the first to sign in the county,” Jeffers said. “Sometime between June and August, I will move to South Carolina and start playing.”
Winthrop awarded Jeffers a $4,000 scholarship and waived his out-of-state tuition because he is from Tennessee.
Jeffers said that he plans to major in information technology.
“I love taking apart computers,” he said.
He will compete in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a game he first encountered in 2019.
“It’s a funny story,” Jeffers said. “I didn’t know about the game until 2019. I was at a friend’s house, and he put the game in, and we all started playing.
“I bought the game and started playing,” he said. “I played it a lot. I liked it, and I got good at it.”
Clinton High School fields an e-sports team that competes through PlayVS against schools across the Southeast.
Jeffers has played competitively since his freshman year.
