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From phones, computers, consoles and all other platforms, gaming as a whole has been around for a long time. The average person plays casually, but what if I told you, it can be taken a step further past regular competitive nature in the Navy? What about doing it for the Navy? Information Technician 2nd Class Hayden Reeves, assigned to USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76), knows all about the next step. Hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, he’s been gaming his entire life. He started with mostly casual gaming such as Grand Theft Auto, Skate 3, and Minecraft, but Reeves has always been competitive. Starting in small Minecraft tournaments, he knew then he wanted to continue competing.
Later on, he found his way into more action-oriented games.
“I played Overwatch since season one,” said Reeves. “I was ranked in the top 500,”
He started playing Marvel Rivals as soon as Ronald Reagan got to Bremerton, hitting the highest rank in the first season, again ranking in the top 500 of players.
The Navy has its own organization involving gaming and E-sports. It is a part of the Navy’s outreach program as a recruiting effort to connect to potential future sailors. The Navy’s e-sports team is called ‘Goats and Glory’, and is made up of sailors from all ratings to form different teams for a variety of games. Goats and Glory is based out of Navy Recruiting Command in Millington, Tennessee, and goes to a number of events whether it’s to show off the team, compete in tournaments, or answer questions about the Navy.
“I thought about joining the Goats and Glory a long time ago, I always saw the posters at A-school,” said Reeves “I saw that Goats and Glory had a Marvel Rivals team and decided to submit my profile online for a chance to join.”
After Reeves submitted his profile, the team combed through his profile, looking at their ranks and game statistics. They picked the top profiles and did a 6 vs. 6 to see who would make the team. His team ended up losing 4 games and winning 4 games. Even after evening out the scores, the team looked at Reeves’s performance, giving him shout outs while they streamed the game live.
In the end, Goats and Glory picked Reeves to join the team as an auxiliary member, a starting position. As the team asses you and sees that you can work well with everyone else, eventually select Sailors can get a billet to be stations at the Navy headquarters in Millington, Tennessee.
“Keep practicing, even on your teamwork and communication.” Said Reeves “Iron sharpens iron, the more you play, the more you get beat, the better you want to play”.
Reeves was recently selected to join the team for a Dreamhack tournament in Texas. This gave him an opportunity to work with the team and build a stronger bond with them and shares his Navy experience with the world. At the tournament Goats and Glory ended up winning the whole tournament and a prize pool of over $2,400.
“This is something anyone can do, anyone can practice this” Said Reeves “If you want to achieve something like this, you can practice and it will happen”.
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2025 15:58 |
| Story ID: | 500120 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Goats and Glory, by SN Dylan ONeal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
