It was just a month or so ago when the NPSL cancelled their season due to the pandemic. Around the same time, the WPSL followed suite, while UPSL and UWS decided to go on hold for the foreseeable future. USL League 2 had cancelled the month before, while the rest of the pro leagues, including USL, MLS, and NISA took steps to either close down for the year or look for modified approaches to the season. Soccer was going into hibernation in this country, while the vast majority of the country was at home with little distraction from the news of death and sickness that filled social media platforms.

Sometimes a moment picks a person, not the other way around. For Joe Meyer, a high school senior from Albany, NY, it was his time to shine. “I'm a huge sports fan, so once I realized that it would be at least a few months until live sports could return, I began to look at eSports as an innovative alternative. Originally, I had planned for 12-16 clubs, so to see the rapid growth of the tournament was amazing.” The competition’s growth certainly was amazing, going from his planned 12-16 competitors to 120. Those clubs and supporters groups provided “a total of 153 entries across the three consoles (78 PS4, 67 Xbox, 8 PC). These clubs came from 26 different leagues, stretching from professional leagues to the third and fourth divisions of local amateur leagues, and everywhere in between.”

In a short interview with Joe, we got feedback on the entire experience. “By far the biggest challenge was the launch. I only had ten days from when I first put the eCup on twitter until the group stage draw. That meant ten days to not only market the cup and process over 120 clubs, but also develop a streaming strategy, business plan, format, rules, and everything else that goes into a tournament/league. Everything else came down to adapting on the fly and working to make the event better every day.” So in some ways, just like most lower leagues.

The massive success of the Lower League eCup brought some profiteers into the picture, including one individual who attempted to create his own league (with a similar name and branding as Joe’s competition). We’re happy to report that, at least for the moment, the backlash was enough for this individual to shut down entirely.

The competition ended this week with the resulting champions:

Xbox One - In the Xbox One Final, the Oly Town Artesians took down fan-favorites Minneapolis City SC, who were represented by center back Jonah Garcia. Oly Town’s Angel Trejo ran the table, going 10-0 and set the tournament record for goals in a single match, putting 22 past a supporter from the Cal United Strikers in the group stage.
PS4 - Deiver Lopez of FC Motown held off a late comeback by Providence City FC’s Chris Moura to claim the title. Motown certainly benefited from having a professional FIFA player in their club, Lopez qualified for the FIFA20 World Championships this winter, and I’ve been told he already has an offer to join a major European club as an official eSports player.
PC - Finally, Metro Louisville took down Oakland County FC for the PC championship, winning 9-4 on aggregate. Supporter Wyatt Weeks led the NPSL expansion side to the title, winning every match along the way.

And of course, success breeds more success, as Joe has already begun to plan for the 2021 version of the competition. “I'm excited to announce that the eCup is transitioning to an annual event to be held every year from January-mid February! My perspective is that the Lower League eCup can be an extremely valuable asset to the lower league community as an annual tournament that brings together supporters, players, and clubs from across the country. Furthermore, by playing in the offseason, it provides clubs with a platform to grow their brand on a national level, engage with their supporters, and stay relevant in their communities!”

Our favorite response to any question was Joe’s enthusiasm for his favorite memory of the tournament, “The Xbox One Final between Minneapolis City SC and Oly Town Artesians certainly has a compelling argument for the most memorable night of the tournament. Still waiting on confirmation, but between the streams of both clubs, we had over 100 viewers tune in to that match (official number will be released soon). That amount of viewership is incredible for a FIFA tournament, and I am willing to assume that the Minneapolis City stream had the best viewership numbers of any club or league across the several leagues and tournaments that are currently ongoing. It’s a testament to the success and popularity of this event, and the hard work and dedication of the staff at Minneapolis City and Oly Town for helping promote and broadcast the event!”

“Thank you to all of the players, clubs, supporters, and sponsors who helped make the event so special. I appreciate that all of you were willing to take a chance on this event, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out! Stay tuned to the Twitter page as there will be some commemorative merchandise available next week, and a few promotional activities that will keep the eCup active on social media! Registration for 2021 will open in November, and I can’t wait to see everybody back in January!”

— Joe Meyer

Joe Meyer saw a gap and filled it. Not for profit or fame, but with a solution that was “designed to be a platform for clubs and supporters groups to compete in some form of competition and engage with their fans during an extremely difficult time, while also helping bring the lower league community together.” The moment picked Joe and he responded.

Follow Joe Meyer and the Lower League eCup on Twitter.

- Dan Vaughn

Editor’s Note: While Protagonist Soccer did not create or run this tournament in any way, we did provide financial sponsorship.

Oly Town and Oly Pen Force opened the 2019-20 WISL season with a knock-down drag-out fight at the Oly-Pen Sports Center. The Force scored four times in the first quarter of an hour and it looked out of reach, early, for the Artesians, who hadn’t won since December 2017. However, Oly Town’s defense allowed only two more goals on the night and put on a show in the fourth quarter, matching Oly-Pen’s first quarter output, with four goals to steal the away win 9-6. The Artesians head to Snohomish next, to take on a Skyhawks team who are coming off a 3-6 away loss to last year’s champions Tacoma Stars Reserves. To get a better idea of what Oly Town Artesians are all about and how they’re approaching the rest of their season, we spoke with Brandon Sparks, the club’s General Manager.

Since its inception a few years ago, a few clubs have come and gone from the WISL, as a founding member, what do you do to ensure your participation each year?

The Oly Town Artesians were originally founded as an indoor team by myself and Tim Smith, the owner of Olympia Indoor Soccer, so we have long been committed to playing in the Western Indoor Soccer League. It doesn't take much to ensure our participation because it is such a fun version of the game to watch and, for me personally, it is the most fun season to produce because we get to do a lot more in game with music, contests, games and whatever we can do to put on a show. We generally have larger, more engaged crowds during our indoor season despite some challenges we have with our arena (our home for the past five seasons that is partially open to the elements, has no heat, and has the smallest field in the league and was supposed to be our temporary home when our first facility was forced to move) and a less than stellar record on the field.

It helps that we have control of our indoor field and have ownership that allows us to have field time. If you look at the history of the WISL, the majority of teams that have left have done so because of facility issues, not performance on the field or because they didn't like it. The Arlington Aviators and Wenatchee Fire had their indoor centers close; the Everett Arena never had a lot of available time and charged a mint for field time so Sporting Everett dropped out of the league. The building that housed our first facility was sold to a glass company and Olympia Indoor and a tennis center had to move. Luckily John Purtteman and The Evergreen State College had an arena field in The Pavilion that we could use and we loved our first season so much, we wanted to continue at all costs.

Oly Town Artesian supporters show up to cheer on their club, rain or shine, because while indoors that doesn’t matter! (photo: Oly Town Facebook)

Oly Town Artesians also field a team in the EPLWA, which means you get play against Bellingham United and Oly Pen Force outdoors too. Do you see the same players from their squads? Are the tactics similar enough that you know what to plan for? Or is Indoor and Outdoor totally different?

The tactics for indoor and outdoor are almost completely different, so while we see some of the same players, you can't really take much from performances between the two seasons. But player-wise, you do see a lot of the same faces, especially for Bellingham. We will see guys like Richard Henderson, Eleazar Galvan, Noe Betancourt Cruz and Uriel Herrera in both leagues and know what those guys can do. The Hammers have a lot of quality veteran players that stick around town year-round even after they graduate from Western Washington or Whatcom CC, so you see them during both seasons. They have built a fantastic club that players want to stick with and it shows with their results on the field.

Oly-Pen is a little different because their roster for outdoor is often very different than their indoor roster. They focus on younger collegiate players for their outdoor season and most of those players are not available or in the area for indoor. Their indoor team also used to draw from Kitsap Pumas players that came to the area and stuck around during the off season, but with the loss of the Pumas, those players aren't coming to town. Oly-Pen doesn't have a natural player pool - there are no colleges with soccer in Kitsap County (Tacoma is the closest city with collegiate soccer and it is 35 miles away), so their roster will likely be different than the group they had in the early years of the WISL. They also have a brand-new coach for the first time since they joined the WISL, indoor legend Dan Antoniuk, who I'm sure will put his own spin on that roster.

While they are not the same organization, a lot of the Tacoma Stars Reserves team also plays for Washington Premier in the EPLWA, so we see a ton of them in both seasons. And starting this season, the EPLWA will welcome Tacoma Narrows and a team from Everett, so we expect to see a lot more Narrows guys and Snohomish Skyhawks players year-round.

Speaking of indoor squads vs outdoor squads, do you have players who only play one season but maybe don't play both? Or do most of your outdoor players end up on your WISL team?

We have a small core group of players that play both indoor and outdoor. Nate Boatright, in particular, has been with both teams since our very first season and our goalkeeper, JJ Olson, is another guy that has been with both teams for a long time. There is a fair amount of crossover and we would love to have both teams together all year long in the same way that Bellingham does, but we also rely on a lot of college players for both seasons, so we get guys for outdoor that leave for college during the indoor season and indoor players that go home for the summer and aren't available for the outdoor season.

Oly Town heads up to play Shohomish Sky to face the Ginger Jesus himself, John Troka. (photo: Oly Town Facebook)

Bellingham and Tacoma Stars Reserves seem to have the league figured out - how do you break up their stranglehold on the title?

That is the million-dollar question. Honestly, we are all chasing those two squads. We had a rough season on the field last year but nearly knocked off Bellingham in the last game of the season, so anything is possible. You look at those two teams and you will see consistency. They retain players really well through the years, fold in new, talented players when necessary, and just keep on rolling. We seem to constantly have to train new players to play the indoor game, and it takes a long time to get them up to speed. So, while the Stars Reserves and Bellingham are working on the nuances of the game with their experienced indoor players, we are teaching the basics year in and year out. Even really talented players need time to figure the indoor game out. It isn't as simple as it looks.

And, to be bluntly honest, we need a new facility. I think that we have a really great situation with three colleges in our area all with soccer programs, we should be able to draw more of them out to play indoor with us and hopefully have them stick with us through college and beyond. But while The Pavilion is a fun place to see a game, it is not a selling point for players. The Bellingham Sportsplex is great. The Tacoma Soccer Center is great. Oly-Pen Sports is great. The Snohomish Soccer Dome is a little worn, but it is warm and has other amenities that we don't have. We have been in our "temporary" home in a converted play shed on the campus of The Evergreen State College for five seasons now. Until we have a facility that measures up to the other facilities in the league, we are always going to start a little behind.

Honestly, Oly Town is known for dropping some pretty cool swag, aside from some swashbuckling indoor soccer, what do we have to look forward to in the merch department this year?

We don't have much new merch planned for this indoor season, but I would expect new gear for our outdoor season. But I'm always doing new designs and I love getting stickers printed. We lead the league in stickers, for sure, and I'm always willing to get them out to people. Fans from around the country can drop me a message and we are happy to send a couple out.

- Joshua Duder

Masters of design; Oly Town’s Brandon Sparks regularly comes up with amazing new stickers and graphics to promote the club from Olympia, Washington.

For more information about the club

For more information about the WISL

Lower League eCup Crowns Champions

Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL) Season Preview Part IV: Oly Town Artesians