6 minute read
Leveling Up
At MTSU, video games are part of the academic experience
by Drew Ruble
MTSU Esports has become one of the largest student clubs on campus, with more than 1,000 members on Discord, an online communications platform.
Although it’s still currently a rec-level organization, the club fields multiple teams that compete outside the university framework. They hold annual tryouts; practice regularly; watch games together (the way traditional sports teams watch film); and participate in scrimmages and tournaments with teams from other universities. Recent developments have MTSU Esports primed to make a big leap and become the University’s next varsity sport competing nationally through an NCAA-like framework.
It’s timely, given not just Generation Z’s fanaticism for gaming but also gaming’s rising role in academics.
Making the Connections
Experts say collegiate esports have become a useful tool in attracting the best and brightest students to campus, as well as meeting the growing need for talented graduates in the esports industry.
Victoria Horsley, marketing manager for the National Association of Collegiate eSports (gaming’s closest equivalent to the NCAA), says varsity applicants at NACE schools have an average ACT score of 30 and skew heavily toward science, technology, engineering, and math.
“These are very objective-based, quick-thinking people, which is where you get the STEM majors for the most part,” she said. “So [their skills are] very applicable to the real world when they graduate.”
That’s music to the ears of MTSU administrators, who are increasingly putting their support and budgetary dollars behind the esports/academics connection.
Esports isn’t just a recruitment tool, however. It’s also proven to be a deft strategy for retention and engagement of students once they arrive on campus, something researchers have pinpointed as a key to student success. That’s because, among students attending colleges and universities today, sports and gaming are a big part of the culture.
Perhaps that was never more true than during the COVID-19 outbreak. Richard Lewis, Animation professor in the College of Media and Entertainment and faculty advisor to the esports club, said that esports remained “something that students could still do” during the pandemic and that getting on Discord and being able to communicate while gaming “really helped students feel connected with each other.”
Lewis added that “there were students who were saying to me, ‘You know, that’s what got me through.’ ”
He said students who formed those connections and relationships have remained connected through esports at MTSU.
Campus-based esports programs also serve a workforce development purpose.
According to Statistica.com, the esports market “has boomed in recent years with more and more viewers tuning in to watch their favorite games being played by some of the best gamers in the world.”
By 2025, Statistica predicts, there will be more than 318 million esports enthusiasts worldwide, up from 215.2 million in 2020. Additionally, some 322.7 million people are forecast to be occasional viewers of esports by 2025, Statistica says.
Last, Statistica estimated the global esports industry value at just over $1.38 billion in 2022 and forecast it to grow to as much as $1.87 billion by 2025.
Lewis said jobs in the esports industry connected to media and entertainment fields—from broadcasting, video and event production, and traditional media to game development— make MTSU’s investment in esports a savvy one.
To date, the MTSU Esports club has competed against other schools as a club sport, but it is not yet a full varsity team meeting the requirements of NACE. That would require paying an annual membership fee, creating dedicated facilities on campus, and hiring a qualified coach or university official to run the program and actively recruit outstanding gamers.
Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel donated the startup fee and is cultivating a sponsor for the esports program. Keel also persuaded MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee to provide needed space for the program in the Miller Education Building on Bell Street just off the main campus. That space is being renovated now. As such, the esports program is closer than ever to joining NACE and becoming a varsity sport at MTSU.
The retrofitted space might best be described as a sort of computer lab on steroids. The space will include a stage with large screens allowing two or more teams to compete in front of an audience. Space must also be allotted so competitions can be filmed, broadcast, and/or streamed. More funding is needed to complete the project.
In the interim, MTSU’s esports club team has taken up temporary residence in a computer lab in the Telecommunications Building generously provided by the University’s Information Technology Division. Prior to securing this space, student gamers had been competing on their own computers at home—not together in the same space.
“That’s been one of the big, big issues,” Lewis said. “They don’t get that sort of interaction in the same space to compete in that way. So I think it’ll change things for the better. It should really take things to the next level.”
The More Things Change . . .
Even after the varsity esports team launches, the club will continue as a rec sport for recreational players, or aspirants to the varsity team.
“It’s just bringing together the gaming community, which these days is everyone,” Lewis said. “We have a lot of students who like to play video games. They know they can’t compete at the varsity level, but they’re still really interested in playing, so we will continue making it available for that.”
Anyone still doubting the popularity of esports or their ability to attract and retain students (and serve as a career path) need only look at a few of the esports events held last spring at MTSU’s Rec Center.
One event in the gym drew more than 100 people—many of them high school students.
“It’s also a great recruiting tool,” Lewis said. “We had students coming from schools in Alabama and Georgia. It was possibly the biggest event held in the Rec Center since COVID happened. And another one brought in 75 competitors from across Tennessee.”
Clearly, at MTSU, video games are part of the academic experience.
Legend in the Making
Zak Sohrabi, a Physics and Math major from Franklin, is an aspiring video game champion who takes his gaming very seriously.
A regional qualifier for the Red Bull Solo Q National Tournament in November 2022, Sohrabi is also vice president of the MTSU Esports club.
Sohrabi qualified in August when he defeated 70 competitors from Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana to reach the finals.
The League of Legends game requires the players to traverse a virtual territory called Summoner’s Rift, which includes three different paths the players can take to find and destroy the opponent.
Sohrabi said the one-on-one format is uniquely challenging compared to the usual team format.
“That allows for a lot of strategies to be used in the game because you’re not playing it the traditional way,” Sohrabi said. “Preparing for that can definitely be really difficult, because you can be kind of surprised by what some people can come up with in the format.”
