5 minute read
Choose Your Character
Choose Your Character
Once contained to small circles of passionate players and hobbyists, esports has exploded into a lucrative industry, commanding audiences of millions for its most prolific competitions and inspiring the development of leagues that mimic modern athletic conferences, complete with salaried players and home-grown fan bases.
"Sophistication" isn't the first word many would associate with video games such as Call of Duty, League of Legends and Fortnite, but as the world’s best compete for multi-million dollar prizes broadcast to audiences that rival televised sports, it describes a growing career field drawing on the creativity and leadership skills of Pi Kappa Phi’s membership.
As audiences and fan engagement continue to grow in a new era of entertainment, four Pi Kappa Phi members with a variety of backgrounds, interests and skillsets explain how they are continuing to shape the future of competitive gaming in one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of entertainment.
Player 1: Austin Garrison
Whether they're playing on the highest stage, capturing the moment behind the camera or shaping the future for the fan experience, members such as Austin Garrison, an alumnus of Theta Xi Chapter (Arizona State) and an aspiring competitor seeking entrance into the NBA 2K League, are creating a new culture surrounding video games.
Garrison, relying on his discipline and selfmotivation, is one of the NBA’s flagship videogame's elite players. As one of 150 players selected from 80,000 hopefuls to enter its draft and interview with the league's affiliated teams to become a salaried player, his impression of the league's structure was similar to traditional sports.
“When I played sports in school, we used to watch film three or four times a week, and even for a video game, I’ll watch film of top teams and top players to see what we need to do to implement that,” Garrison said. “It’s all about strategy, being able to be coachable and adapting.”
Although Garrison wasn’t selected in the draft, it’s given him more of a reason to play harder and make an effort to promote himself as he prepares for next season, saying that he wants to explore playing for an audience on Twitch, a video game broadcasting platform, to increase his exposure.
Player 2: Adam Antor
As more and more schools adopt esports programming, they also require dedicated staff members trained to serve as coaches and role models for students. Adam Antor, a 2019 Thirty Under 30 award recipient and an alumnus of the Delta Delta Chapter (Truman State), serves as Aquinas University’s head esports coach and is responsible for the continuing development of its budding program. “I’m in an industry that is little known to most people,” Antor said. “All of us are creating what the next standard is going to be for esports, which requires someone to be a leader and be outgoing.”
After organizing a League of Legends tournament at Truman State, esports became a plausible career path for Antor. Transforming his competitive experience into a professional one, he said that Pi Kappa Phi was an influential factor in giving him the skills to create a career path for himself to work in esports.
In addition to coaching aspiring esports competitors, Antor spends his time on location, utilizing his background in marketing by capturing moments at live events with his camera. He likes to capture the emotion of a close match and take area-wide shots that show how invested the fans are.
“I know the photos that they want to see and the photos that they look for to promote their brands, so having a marketing background for brands and for events like this is a benefit.”
Player 3: Tyler Schrodt
While esports' most notable players take on the spotlight, sanctioned esports leagues at the youth, high school or collegiate activity are developing the next generation of players with the help of Tyler Schrodt, Theta Psi (RIT).
As the CEO of the Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF), Schrodt has been helping develop esports programs for schools with interested students.
Schrodt, a 2017 Thirty Under 30 award recipient, said his passion for developing a community around gaming started at a young age when playing games alongside his siblings. Just as video games were a large part of his childhood, the EGF is making it so that any student with an interest in esports can create a program for their campus.
“At the high school level, we see that when students get involved in our program they show up to school more often and their grades tend to improve, things that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with gaming as an activity,” Schrodt said. “It reinforces that this is something that I love doing as a participant, and now I can scale this to help influence the cultural shifts in gaming that are happening now.”
Player 4: Matt Basta
By the year 2021, esports viewership is predicted to be higher than all major American sports leagues except for the NFL, and the demand for in-person fan experiences is growing as well. The Fortnite World Cup sold out the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, and a $50 million venue is currently being built in Philadelphia for its native Overwatch team, the Philadelphia Fusion.
“It always comes down to the experience, and at the end of the day, the driving factor is what is the experience for fan attendance that’s going to drive the future,” said Matt Basta, Beta Epsilon (Missouri).
Basta, who works in communications and specializes in esports, is motivated by being on the cutting edge of emerging markets. After being around for the dot com era internet explosion, he utilized his experience in sports marketing to take the lead in a developing industry.
While Basta doesn’t consider himself a huge gamer, and even though he’s a bit older than most of his peers in the industry, he said the community around esports fans and players alike have developed is enticing to him.
Working on the business side of esports, Basta has the opportunity to shape the legitimacy of competitive video games as an entertainment medium by addressing trends and assessing what will be the next driving force in a rapidly evolving industry. His role demonstrates that a career in video games isn’t limited to developing games or playing in competitions.
