6 minute read
NDSCS brings esports to college athletics
from Innovation 2019
A new type of student-athlete
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By Johanna Armstrong Innovation
The second-largest multisport event after the Olympics, the Asian Games, had esports as a demonstration event in 2018. In 2019, the South east Asian Games will be featuring esports as a med al sport. Prize pools for esports events reached $30 million at the “Fortnite” World Cup in early August, and $34 million at The In ternational Dota 2 Championships. In September, Nike unveiled its first line of esports jerseys, designed and produced for the teams in China’s League of Leg ends Pro League, China’s esports organization for the game “League of Legends.” Slowly, the world is accept ing esports as a legitimate athletic pursuit and, while Asia may be leading the charge, many Western in stitutions are on the bleeding edge of this growing industry. North Dakota State College of Science is one such institution, adding a brand new esports team that will be affiliated with the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). The decision to add an esports team came natu rally — many students were already coming together on their own, renting space in the student center to par ticipate and host gaming tournaments and meetups. “We started to encourage that and host certain events related to that throughout
JOHANNA ARMSTRONG | INNOVATION ESPORTS: North Dakota State College of Science student Davis Waldron plays “Team Fight Tactics,” a game mode that uses characters from League of Legends. The college has added esports to its activities this fall.
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the year and then we talked to our students last year and they really felt that this was something that could engage a different type of student that maybe isn’t typically involved in other organizations or athletics per se,” says vice presi dent of student affairs Jane Vangsness Frisch. It really kind of was a grassroots ef fort and we made the decision early this summer.”
Along with the new es ports team is a newly renovated gaming area. “This is an initiative by our student senate, they allocated a large amount of funds to be able to enhance our game room,” said Frisch. “One aspect of that renovation was to include an esports area, so gaming comput ers, chairs, those kinds of things, to be utilized by our new esports team, but also by students in general.” The esports area now has six stations, ready to welcome new student-athletes as they join the esports club this fall.
NDSCS administration believes the addition of the esports club will help stu dents better connect with each other and improve the school’s student retention rates. “At NDSCS we always are continually looking for ways to further engage our students, but also to help with their retention,” says Frisch. “What we know is that research tells us it just takes one connection for a student to really thrive at an institution, especially when they’re a residential student. So we see adding esports as a way for us to enable connections with the college community, but also support and reach out
SEE ESPORTS PAGE 24
JOHANNA ARMSTRONG | INNOVATION SETTING UP A SQUAD: NDSCS esports advisor Colby Youngquist (left) helps Davis Waldron (right) choose a good unit in the game “Team Fight Tactics.”
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JOHANNA ARMSTRONG | INNOVATION COMPUTER COMPETITION: NDSCS student Bergen Dow plays “Hearthstone.” The Wildcats will be advised by residential life staff members Colby Youngquist and Matt Diischer.
ESPORTS
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to a certain student population that may not be engaged in other types of athletics or student organi zations.”
NACE is a nonprofit membership association that provides standardized rules and compliance for esports games and events, competition between programs, professional development and more. They boast 117 member schools, more than 2,800 student-athletes, an an nual national convention and $15 million in esports scholarships and aid.
NDSCS won’t be provid ing esports scholarships yet. So far, 27 students have registered for the esports team, but the college hopes it will continue to grow in the future. “We don’t offer scholarships at this time, it’s really the encourage ment of student involvement and engagement,” says Frisch. “What we’re finding is that students are already playing these games, and so having the structure to insert balance between their academics and the video games and the competition, and also the collaboration with their teammates, learning from one another and also learning from the esport adviser coaches.”
The team will keep the school’s mascot, the Wild cats, and will be advised by two NDSCS residential life staff members, Colby Youngquist, resident direc tor for Nordgaard Hall, and Matt Diischer, assistant di rector for leadership and community development. The team will be playing the game “League of Leg ends” competitively, along with one more game that they haven’t decided on yet, probably “Tom Clan cy’s Rainbow 6 Siege.” Tryouts for the competitive team will be held later this year. Other area schools that also have esports teams include Dickinson State University, University of Jamestown, Minnesota State University Moorhead and Bismarck State Col lege, which also added it this year alongside NDSCS and will be offering esports scholarships, among oth ers.
The NDSCS community has been supportive of the club’s addition, says Frisch. “The community overall, both the students and fac ulty/staff, have been very supportive, recognizing that everyone has varied interests on campus and that this is another way to support a different demo graphic student interest.”
