Our Staff

Dr. Chris “Doc” Haskell founded the Esports Program along with Dr. Brett Shelton in 2017 and is the program’s head coach. Dr. Haskell was an Educational Technology professor for Boise State before founding the program. Doc has won multiple awards for his work with Boise State Esports including being named NACE 2020 Program Director of the Year and 2021’s Esports Collegiate Ambassador of the year.

Veronica Roper (she/her/ella) is Project Director for the Esports team and in the College of Innovation and Design, where she has been part of the Dean’s Office team since 2018. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from California State Polytechnic University, and a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Management and a Masters in Public Administration from Boise State University.

Rae Barnes is one of the longest serving members of the Boise State Esports team and handles many tasks related to media production for the program. These tasks can range from running the control room for the program’s live broadcasts, editing together replay clips to post on social media, to producing graphics and advertisements for Boise State. Any bit of content that is released by Boise State Esports has most likely been created, edited, or overseen by them.

While most athletic programs have a sports information director (SID), Jacob Palmer serves as Boise State’s (and perhaps the nation’s) first ESID. He handles most matters relating to PR for the program. He writes news articles, puts out press releases, and maintains contact with various members of the local media for Boise State Esports. When he isn’t serving as the programs ESID, he can often be found on stage as a host and caster for live esports broadcasts.

Dr. Brett E. Shelton has been studying video games all the way back to 2004(ish). He taught classes at the university level in games and simulations for over 15 years. He has received national grants for building technology-based games that transform the way people learn about complex concepts. He was also an early researcher of AR and VR for education, and has published more than 50 peer reviewed articles.

Payton “Wayton” Wilkin is a highly successful Rocket League content creator and a former Boise State varsity Rocket League player. He regularly posts videos about Rocket League and competitive gaming on his YouTube channel which has over half a million subscribers and regularly pulls in millions of views.

He currently serves as the head coach for Boise State’s varsity Rocket League team.

Elliot has been playing amongst the best players in the world for the last 2 years in the Overwatch League. Some notable teams he’s been on include the Paris Eternal, Washington Justice, Team Envy and Angry Titans.

He’s currently taking a break from competing due to a wrist injury, and has agreed to share his knowledge that with the Broncos he’s gathered from playing at the highest level from the last couple of years.

Trung ‘Litiq’ Tran is a professional Hearthstone player who’s been playing the game since 2014 and playes for SPGeSports. If not coaching you can usually find him playing open / cash cups or playing in top Legend ranks and is a perennial Top 100 finisher on EU. Litiq lives in Amsterdam.  When Boise State moved Hearthstone to a “supported” game, his coaching was discontinued.

Nicholas “Shifty” Travis was the coach of the London Spitfire Academy team known as the British Hurricane and winner of the 2018 Contenders Series. “Shifty” has been a professional Overwatch coaching since 2017 on some of the biggest stages in the world including pros and teams across NA, EU, and SEA.  He also serves at the Overwatch coach for Becker College.  Mr. Travis was named the Director of Clarke University and has stepped away for that opportunity.

Daumantas “Ryuu” Krugliakovas has worked as a freelance coach and analyst for Boise State since 2017. His expertise in Overwatch League (Former analyst for Florida Mayhem), Rocket League (Multiple RLCS and RLRS Teams) make him an invaluable resource to the talented students at Boise State (You can read more about him: http://about.me/ryuutsubasa). “Ryuu” lives in Lithuania.