Navy Electronics Technician 2nd Class Manuel Bolanos, a native of McAllen, Texas, assigned to the Navy’s esports team, Goats & Glory, plays a friendly Valorant skirmish during the Valorant $5K Lan Tournament, part of a Navy Promotional Day (NPD) Philadelphia, May 14, 2022. Photo of the United States Navy

Are you a sailor who wants to play video games from 8am to 4pm?
Good news, the Navy has a job for you.

The Navy’s esports team, Goats and Glory, which is part of the service’s recruiting squad, is currently looking for new sailors. The service uses it as a way to connect with potential high school and college recruits, according to a Tuesday NAVADMIN.

“The Navy Esports team contributes significantly to CNRC’s multifaceted outreach campaign by connecting with potential sailors online and at play venues,” said NAVADMIN.

For those who get the three-year bat, a typical day includes practicing playing, live streaming and setting up tournaments, Lt. Aaron Jones, director of the Navy ESports Division during a Twitch livestream Wednesday.

“[A] big part of the esports team is [being the] face of the Navy,” Jones said. “There is a great risk inherent in what goes in. There is a lot of training.”

As part of outreach, the Goats and Glory team travels around the country organizing high school and college tournaments, Jones said. There will also be scrimmages and the team will compete against other military esports teams.

The position is considered a special duty assignment, he said. It does require a permanent station change to Memphis, where the esports team has its own facility.

“So a lot of it is playing video games, practicing video games or preparing for events where we can play or practice video games,” Jones said during the stream. “It’s not a bad life. And it’s all outreach.”

The Navy focused on esports in 2020 and established its first team that year, as it dropped television ads, USNI News previously reported. The service found that they were more successful in reaching the target audience through digital means, such as YouTube ads or esports ads.

Navy Goats & Glory esports team logo. Photo of the US Navy

Esports attracted younger people, with 61 percent of viewers under the age of 25, according to a 2018 Syracuse University study used by the Navy Recruiting Command to focus on esports. That same study estimated that by 2021, esports would become the biggest sports league behind the NFL with 84 million viewers.

“Centennials are moving to digital spaces for most of their content consumption and social interactions, and the Esports domain is one of the most popular and vibrant online arenas to date,” according to the NAVADMIN. “To connect and attract the best talent, the Navy needs to be in the same spaces as those future sailors.”

The Navy has had some success setting up tournaments, Jones said on the Twitch stream, in which another member of the team played Valorant. The team recently hosted a League of Legends tournament in Denver that went from 11 a.m. to nearly 2 a.m. with non-stop play, he said.

However, the esports team has failed to accumulate many views. The Twitch channel – under the name America’s Navy – has 5,500 followers and the specific video about joining the team has 225 views. Advertisements from the Navy were played during the stream. The Navy took heat from the gaming community in 2020 after it was accused of stifling free speech by blocking users, reported military.com.

By comparison, some of the most popular streamers have millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of views per video. One of the top female streamers, Pokimane, has 9.2 million followers with 502,000 views on her most recent stream.

Goats and Glory plays a variety of games, including League of Legends, Halo: Infinite, Valorant, Call of Duty: Warzone, World of Warships, Rocket League, World of Warcraft, Street Fighters, Counter Strike Global Offensive, and Overwatch.

They choose games where there are competitions in high school and colleges, Jones said.

However, for the tryouts to join the team, applicants should focus on Halo: Infinite, League of Legends, Valorant, Call of Duty: Warzone and Rocket League, Jones said.

As part of the application, sailors must provide their rank for each of the games. From the application, the esports team takes 100 people and has them participate in a five-day, three-day tournament. Thirty players advance to an interview round.

The esports team then ranks and stacks the 30 players and works with detailers to take out sailors. Sailors must be an E-4 with a waiver or an E-5 and above, Jones said.

The current team, according to the website, consists of eight players and is led by Jones, who uses the gamertag Thalassic. Each player also lists his naval position on the website. Jones, for example, is a naval flight officer.

The application period is September 1 to October 1.