Game Changers

How Utica College’s Esports Club has become one of the fastest growing student organizations on campus.

By Abin Boris ’22

JARED BEST ’22 IS WELL AWARE OF WHAT HE CALLS THE “STIGMA” AROUND VIDEO GAMERS.

“People think we’re just these lazy, nerdy guys who live in our moms’ basements,” says Best, a senior cybersecurity major. “But gaming is so much more than that.”

Indeed, as co-founder and public relations officer for the Utica College Esports Club, Best knows firsthand the popularity—and the power—of competitive video games, or esports, which exist in a world far from mom’s proverbial basement.

Now boasting more than 50 members, UC’s Esports Club grew from an offshoot of the College’s Cybersecurity Club in 2019, and has fast become one of the most popular student organizations on campus.

Ever since I joined the Esports Club, I genuinely feel like my life has changed for the better.

- Connor Pete ’22

The club is divided into four teams for the four games in which its members specialize: Call of Duty, a first-person shooter game set in a warzone; Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a multi-player shooter game; The “battle arena” game League of Legends; and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a fighting game with familiar characters like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Like athletes, members train regularly and are ranked according to skill (“blue varsity” members are more skilled than their “JV orange” counterparts). Practices consist of team scrimmages and hours of reviewing strategy via Discord, a group-chatting platform for gamers. On “game days,” the club faces off against other schools in matchups and tournaments livestreamed on Twitch, where friends and fans serve as a virtual cheering section.

For members like Brandon Kowalski ’22, discovering the club in 2020 helped him make connections at UC.

“It was refreshing to find a club like this where you could play together and work towards a goal,” says Kowalski, a Call of Duty team captain. “I have met a lot of new friends through the club, and I am grateful for that.”

Connor Pete ’22, a member of the Call of Duty team, agrees.

“Ever since I joined the Esports Club, I genuinely feel like my life has changed for the better,” says Pete.

While members report that the club has grown mostly through word of mouth, they also credit the pandemic for esports’ surge in popularity. With social-distancing requirements prohibiting many in-person sports, some athletes found a competitive outlet in video gaming at UC, says Jared Best.

And it’s a trend echoed nationwide; according to the Washington Post, video game sales in March 2020 increased 35 percent from the previous March. Twitch, the game streaming service, hosted 1.49 billion gaming hours in April 2020, a 50 percent increase from the previous month.

Similarly, Best says the club’s membership grew by more than 50 percent since March 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When the pandemic started, people were looking for a safe avenue for their boredom,” says Best, who explains that several new club members are varsity athletes at UC who found themselves with more free time after their seasons were canceled due to the virus.

But even as esports grow nationwide and on campus, members say it remains an uphill battle to be seen as a legitimate sport.

“I think the fact that we sit in a chair is the biggest reason people are quick to say this is not a sport,” says alumnus Ryan Becker ’21, one of the club’s founders. “These games require skill, strategy, and mental agility, and to me, that’s what sports are about.”

Plenty of others agree. As of fall 2021, 175 U.S. colleges and universities offer officially recognized varsity esports programs. These schools—which include nearby Cazenovia College, Hartwick College, and SUNY Canton—have coaching staffs and offer partial or full-ride athletic scholarships to gamers.

That level of legitimacy is “our end-game,” says Best, who explains that changing the perception around esports at UC is the first step toward loftier goals, such as establishing an esports major, securing sponsors to fund new technology or equipment, or creating a physical “gaming center” on campus where the club can train and compete.

In the meantime, Best and his fellow club members are happy to keep gaming and growing—effectively defying the “lazy gamer” stereotype he knows so well.

Says Best, “We have a lot of long-term goals.”