The esports industry is a phenomenon that is continuing to grow, especially among universities and high schools. While many collegiate sporting events and venues are seeing declining attendance, esports events are filling huge stadiums, also while millions of viewers worldwide are tuning in at home through streaming services such as YouTube and Twitch to watch the best players battle it out in their favorite games.
More investments are now being made in esports, and the esports agenda is pushed by many more entities wanting to get involved. Even traditional sporting giants such as the NFL, Formula 1, and FIFA are becoming more participative.
So, what are esports? Esports (or electronic sports) are professional, organized video game competitions where professional gamers competitively play video games against one another, with large sums of money and prestige being the prize. These tournaments can range from small local matches to filling out stadiums or arenas with thousands of viewers.
At Texas State University, we have an esports team that has over 250 members. I recently had the opportunity to go to the esports arena in Arlington, TX, where our team competed in the “Battle4Texas” Overwatch tournament. With 15 teams from Texas and one from Mississippi, it was a great tournament. Some of the teams that competed in the tournament were UT Arlington, The University of Texas, University of North Texas, Baylor, University of Houston, and Sam Houston State University. Our Texas State team made it to the quarter finals, beating Sam Houston to make it there. It was a great showing of the Texas State team.
Back at home, we are working on taking our club to the next level of esports and hopefully in the future will be able to join the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), which is an organization devoted to advancing college varsity esports. Current efforts are around dedicated facilities for esports and specialized equipment for student use. I am hoping the IT Division will be playing a big role in the success of this endeavor at Texas State.
If you want to follow the Texas State esports club, look for #TXSTEsports or follow @TXSTEsports.
Ken Pierce is Vice President for Information Technology and CIO.
