The world of competitive eSports is full of exhilarating, fast-paced competition, and William “Mordio” Yang is one of the most exciting players to watch.
Originally from Wrentham, Massachusetts, Yang is currently a junior competing as one of the League of Legends players on the Winthrop eSports team.
Yang first started playing video games when he was just six years old, but would not begin competing until he was 16 years old. While gaming, he goes by the name “Mordio.”
“It comes from a game called Tales Of Vesperia,” Yang said. “When I was back in high school, one of my best friends would always play it with me, and it was one of the characters you could choose. So just for him I was like ‘I’ll make my stage name Mordio.’”
Although Yang has only been playing competitively for a few years, he is no stranger to the collegiate eSports scene, as he has played for three other programs throughout his college career.
“Winthrop’s actually my fourth college. I went to Robert Morris in Chicago my first year, I went to Maryville University in St. Louis, and then before I came here I went to Culver-Stockton in Missouri,” Yang said.
During his first year playing at the collegiate level, Yang made a very fond memory as his team made the collegiate finals.
“The game company, Riot Games, flew us out to L.A. and got us this five star hotel and these nice restaurants and we got to play on the stage where professionals play and stuff. It was pretty cool,” he said.
Despite COVID-19 causing some of his teammates to play from off campus, Yang said it has not been an issue.
“We’re pretty fortunate because eSports is all online,” he said.
Yang became a member of the Winthrop eSports team during its inaugural season in 2019-2020.
“Winthrop was building a new eSports program and the director told me he would build a team around me and let me know of some of the roster decisions he was making, and the roster looked competitive enough for me so I decided to give it a shot,” he said.
Although Yang enjoys playing at the collegiate level, his future plans involve playing professionally.
“When you’re at the highest level in collegiate eSports, the plan is not to graduate, the plan is to try and go pro,” he said.
Yang said that there is a large skill gap between collegiate and professional play, but he plans to make the leap.
“Comparing the highest level of collegiate to the lowest level of professional play — it might be like comparing middle schoolers to high schoolers, but there’s obviously outliers like new, young talent,” Yang said.
Yang and Winthrop’s League of Legends team are off to a 2-0 start this season, with their most recent win against Newberry on Jan. 30.
Photo courtesy of Winthrop Athletics
