In the world of esports, “gamertags” are used to distinguish players from each other in a way that speaks to them as an individual. Names range from strings of random characters to deeply personal stories, or anything in between. Every tag has a story, and some of our members at OU have been gracious enough to share those stories with us.

Dylan joined esports as a “Mario Kart” racer in August of 2024, having applied after playing in a tournament hosted by the team for that year’s Camp Crimson. He is on the A team this year, which has been competing in this current season for over a month and hopes to begin a “Mario Kart World” season after the playoffs.

Dylan’s IGN comes from a nickname given to him by a middle school teacher. When he rekindled his love of video games at the end of high school, he felt his gamertag of “King_R3d” was “really awful” and decided to make his new tag that old nickname his teacher gave him.

Kai is a first-year student both for OU and esports, inspired to apply for the “Apex Legends” team because of a group chat he was in before enrolling at OU. Before OU, he went by the name “wetnoodle,” but when he joined esports, he felt he needed to change it to something else. He searched online for “dumb animal names,” and ran several Instagram polls to decide on the winner: Saiga, after the Saiga antelope (shown below).

Before coming to OU, Haden mostly played a mixture of “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” (now “Counter Strike 2”) and “Valorant.” When he came to OU, he tried out for the “Valorant” team, not knowing that we had a “Counter Strike” team, and was told to look at joining that one. Despite considering himself to not have been very good, he tried out and is now in his third year playing for the “Counter Strike 2” team.

When Haden was younger, he would go to Kanakuk, a Christian summer camp, where kids were split into groups based on different Native American tribes. Haden was put into the Cherokee group, which he combined with his wish to become a Minecraft YouTuber to make his first gamertag “Cherokid_mines.” This tag stuck with him until one fateful day when another gamer in his lobby told him his name would sound cooler if he replaced “Chero” with “Cryo.” Haden followed this suggestion, dropping the “kid” and “_mines” parts of his name over time.

Jacob is a freshman at OU and joined esports for “Apex Legends,” having specifically included whether colleges had an “Apex” team as part of his decision process. Jacob’s gamertag used to be SavedEPH28, after the bible verse Ephesians 2:8– “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. It is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Jacob considers himself to be very connected to his faith, and when he decided to change his username to be a little cleaner, he settled on “rSaved” (are saved) to keep that core part of his identity prominent.

Grace Tan is a freshman in computer science, starting her first year in the competitive scene on the “Marvel Rivals” team, who says that there are “tons of different people from different backgrounds, and everyone is very inclusive.” You can find her on the big stage under the name 1987gnx. A blend of Kendrick Lamar’s album “GNX,” released last November in 2024, and the 1987 model of the car featured.

Aiden Poole is a 26-year-old junior and a part of the “League of Legends” team here at OU. His username, GoldyLocks, really stuck out. Why is that?

When asked, he told me about his long history with “League” as a game. Playing for 13 years, at one point, he cosplayed as Surfer Singed. He even went to the lengths of dying his hair blond! The name GoldyLocks came to him from that point, and he has been dedicated to it since he was 15.

Though a late bloomer to OU, it hasn’t stopped his passion; he spends his time helping create VOD reviews and scrims with all the new and promising faces around. “I’m happy if I’m on the sideline, as long as we’re winning,” Poole said. Despite not being on the stage, he’s ensuring the new wave of students joining the team has the best help to go the distance.

Ella Haiges is a first-year Meteorology student and one of the players behind the recently revived OU “Splatoon” team. It wasn’t until she got her first Switch in 2017 that she started her journey with the first “Splatoon.” Originally, Ella went by the name “maydonkmay,” shortened today to simply “maydonk.” It is a name going so far back even she forgot where it came from, yet she claims it all the same.

Logan Marshall is a player on our “Mario Kart 8” team. He’s been playing “Mario Kart” for years, but never in the competitive scene. “It’s increased my appreciation of the game,” Marshall said.

He explained he had gone by the name “snugpig” since 2017. The name came from a small (at the time) game called Rec Room, using a random name generator. The name stuck all the way to today.

Today, he’s released over 22 small games on itch.io, one on Steam, and one on the Apple App Store. He’s shown that he’s more than willing to work for his dream, even participating in the game jams that are held at OU.

Let’s look at Mursalin, a player on the “Valorant” team, with the IGN of “Dumb” deriving from his full username “LetMeBeDumb,” conveying the simple need for his team to let him be dumb and play the way he plays. Despite the name, he says the team is shaping up and working better with each game.

Josh is a freshman at OU and joined esports about a month after enrolling over the winter break of 2024-2025. Despite not being on any of the competitive teams and only being here for less than a year, Josh has already left a heavy mark on OU as a mainstay caster for many esports streams, as well as a founder and co-host for the Sooner Gamescast podcast.

Josh’s story as a content creator started when he was very young, having been inspired by the YouTube legend “JackSepticeye,” and he began releasing compilation videos under the name “Joshsepticeye.”

In middle school, he released a video compiling scenes from the YouTubers “JackSepticeye” and “Markiplier” and saw it peak at over 200,000 views, at which point he felt he needed to create his own brand. Seeking guidance from a random username generator, he was given the name “Toxidocious.” This, he felt, was incredibly stupid, but it stuck with him, and eventually morphed into his well-known tag of “Toxidious.”

Regardless of whether your gamertag comes from a simple game back in the day, is based on your favorite music artist, or is the foundation of your game-making career, everyone’s name has a story. We wanted to give you a glimpse into who our players and what their stories are.

If you hear a match is going on, see a new article come out about a team’s success, or see them walking around campus, go say hi. Meet them and hear their stories. Watch as they give it their all from match to match. You never know who you might meet.

So, who’s on your team?