Early Success For Up-And-Coming ODU Esports Program

by Benjamin Draper

Adecade ago, there was no thought of the word “esports” at Old Dominion University. Although video games were important to students in their personal lives, the lack of interest in video games on campus kept the competitive gaming community at ODU on a low-key level. This changed in 2020, when Old Dominion became the first four-year public institution in the Commonwealth to begin a varsity esports program.

Grant Deppen, Assistant Director for Intramural/ Extramural/Club Sports at ODU, was asked to take a look at how esports could be integrated on campus. Deppen is a graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor’s in Sports Administration and a master’s in Sports and Recreation Management. He spent five years at Kent State working as a coordinator and referee for intramural sports. In October of 2014, he moved to Old Dominion and has been assisting with intramural sports. In 2019, former Vice President for Student Engagement and Enrollment, Don

Stansberry, approached Deppen with the opportunity to get students more involved in esports.

“We went into a pretty heavy investigative phase that lasted from January-February 2019 till about September 2019 that went into benchmarking, finding potential locations, looking at cost, and how we build out an arena to be feasible for students on campus,” Deppen said. “At that point, I made a pitch to Stansberry and several other ODU officials that we could do something pretty robust esports-wise, based on what was already happening.”

Due to COVID-19 regulations throughout the later part of the 2020 school year, the program didn’t get an opportunity to properly start until the fall of 2021. While most of the competition was happening remotely, the Monarch Esports Arena was being installed on the second floor of the Webb Center, where it would utilize 1400 square feet for various gaming PCs, a broadcast room for streaming production, and an all-around great space for students to hang out.

“We made all of the final decisions on the drawings and architecture of the arena the same week that classes were being canceled due to the pandemic. Everything was built in to still occur,” Deppen said. “We didn’t officially open the Monarch Esports Arena until April of 2021. We had teams playing remotely for the first year of this program, but due to the lack of students on campus, we were officially open to the general public in fall 2021.”

It wasn’t until students returned to campus in the fall of 2021 when the ODU Esports program began to take the next leap in building a name for themselves. The program brought on students to fill positions as staff, coaches, social media members, a production and broadcasting team, and members of the 14 varsity game titles for competition at the regional and national level.

In 2021, among the teams that Old Dominion offers, the Monarchs were ranked No. 2 in the nation in FIFA, while the Super Smash team finished ranked No. 4 in NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports).

The success for the Smash team carried over into the 2022 school year, when they finished No. 8 in NACE. They also qualified and participated in CECC (Collegiate Esports Commisioners Cup) in Atlanta, Georgia, where members of the team stayed for several days. Another successful ODU Esports team in 2022 was the Valorant squad, who became MAEC Champions at the Shenandoah LAN tournament. The Madden varsity team finished No. 8 in the nation in fall 2022. Among the rest of the teams that ODU Esports offers, many have had several playoff appearances in various game titles. The program was given the privilege of hosting the 2022 VHSL Esports Championships in the Monarch Arena and throughout the Webb Center, where many high school students throughout Virginia came to campus and watched the program compete at the state-level.

Handling a whole esports program as well as directing intramural and club sports requires assistance. Deppen found his right-hand man in Byron Hindson, who is the overall coordinator for ODU Esports. Hinson is a graduate from the Catholic University of America, where he received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. When arriving at ODU in fall 2021, he started off as a graduate assistant for the upcoming esports program before being given the opportunity to work full-time as the coordinator.

“Having Byron on has been really a savior for me, even though as a graduate assistant, he came in and just kind of owned his role, his position and his level of authority among the program,” Deppen said.

Although the ODU program has had steady success throughout its first years of existence, the goal is to keep growing and achieve more going forward. The main goal for ODU Esports is to be able to offer scholarships, which can help bring in the best players possible. The program also hopes to expand training opportunities for coaching and practice programs and integrate further with academic programs, allowing students to add a new dimension to their college education.

“Overall, I think the very first goal we had was to be as competitive as we can within our resource base. There are schools that seem to offer full scholarships and things like that to attract students from all over the world,” Deppen said. “We have a large program, we have the space that’s able to accommodate a lot of different things, but if we can get to that scholarship position, that’s what is going to take us to the heights we wanna get to.”

By Gabriel Cabello Torres

Artificial intelligence has always been a trending topic in both the tech world and in popular culture. The concept of machines learning to think, perform, and speak like a human–or better–is awe-inspiring and controversial.

Recently, AI has been dominating the market. AI assistants like Amazon Alexa have exploded in popularity, along with AI “friends” such as Replika. Advancements in AI have spread throughout the video game industry. Now, AI is creeping past technological boundaries and into the arts; an infiltration into the world of human creativity that is, for many, a step too far.

The rapid advancement of AI technology in the 21st century has inspired a range of emotional responses, from overwhelmingly optimistic to apocalyptically fearful. Whatever their opinion, no one can deny that AI art has improved by leaps and bounds.

The relationship between visual art and artificial intelligence isn’t new. Using AI to generate images has been a long-time goal for developers involved with improving AI. A milestone in this quest was reached when an AI-generated art piece titled Edmond de Belamy was auctioned off for a jaw-dropping total of $435,000.

What exactly happened over the past year that inspired such a powerful backlash from social media artists and supporters of the arts?

The answer lies in one word: Accessibility. Until 2022, these types of programs were usually private. Anyone who had access to code could run prompts themselves. However, the average person wasn’t technologically savvy enough to do so.

Fast forward to 2022 and the internet exploded with controversy thanks to Dall-E Mini, an AI art generation website. Social media and news outlets showcased how people could input bizarre prompts to produce truly strange images straight out of a fever dream. Emerging alongside DALL-E Mini were two other AI image software that were outstanding for their efficiency: Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.

So why the controversy? The biggest outrage yet was sparked when an AI-generated art piece won first place in Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition in September of 2022. Understandably, artists were not happy. In their eyes, it seemed ridiculously unfair that an image that only required the simple input of a specific prompt could win the competition. has already started to increase automation within its fulfillment centers. One of the candidates for the 2020 election, Andrew Yang, was adamant about discussing the future for workers due to automation. Technology is seen as a threat to the jobs of manual workers, and now to artists as well. AI technology is now capable of producing song lyrics, code, pictures, and essays. Is AI going to exterminate honest labor done by human hands?

When brushstrokes are traded for keystrokes, is it still art? Does the so-called artist truly deserve the medal? Should the medal be awarded to the people who developed the technology? Should AI-generated images even be allowed in a competition in the first place? Conversations surged throughout the social media sphere with adamant supporters on both sides.

The argument in favor of AI-generated art highlights the possible positives of technological advancement. The ability to access a custommade painting without having to pay a commission is an attractive idea for many users. AI can produce multiple complex images in a short amount of time, whereas a human artist will take more time to produce a singular image. The harsh reality is that the average person doesn’t always want to shell out at least $20 for a single commission piece unless that person is a staunch supporter of the humanity behind the arts.

One of the main arguments against AI art is that AI art generators collect images and data from artists’ work and reproduce similar pieces without any proper credit. Several AI art generators have sprung up on the internet that imitate different art styles, like “Berserk” creator Kentauro Miura’s or Picasso’s cubism art-style. Not even lesser-known artists are safe from having their work harvested by an AI art generator, as these generators often use artwork taken from social media. Essentially, it’s plagiarism. AI art generators are drawing attention and customers away from artists who are trying to gain a following or make a living.

AI art is challenging conventional views of originality and creativity. Is art really “art” if it’s not from a human’s hands, blood, sweat, tears, and emotional trauma? Is it really a unique piece if the artificial intelligence is merely collecting hundreds of image samples to produce an image?

It all circles back to the discussion about automation. Automation has long been a hot topic when it comes to blue-collar jobs. Amazon Inc.

Is art really “art” if it’s not from a human’s hands, blood, sweat, tears, and emotional trauma? Is it really a unique piece if the artificial intelligence is merely collecting hundreds of image samples to produce an image?

Maybe, maybe not. In the realm of art, one has to realize what makes art so special. One has to ask if it is truly possible to replicate human emotion, skill, and style. In terms of physical labor, can a machine truly integrate the experience and skill that a human expert has? At the end of the day, machines still fail and break.

Regardless of the answers to these questions, there is still an underlying ethical issue that shouldn’t be disregarded. Artists have reasons to be upset about these new age advancements, while developers have their own reasons to want to further the progress of artificial intelligence.

Not every technological advancement made during the history of humankind has been a positive one. The rise of new technology never goes without consequences.