Page 28 - Campus Technology, January/February 2019

:: eSPORTS
RETHINKING HOW TECHNOLOGY IS USED IN EDUCATION
A Beginner’s Guide to
Esports Organizations
You can’t understand college esports without knowing the major players.
WHEN THE University of California, Irvine discovered in a survey that nearly three-quarters of its students identified as “gamers” and 89 percent supported launch of an esports team, the university didn’t waste time. By 2016 it had launched UCI Esports, including construction of a gaming arena and creation of a robust scholarship program, calling itself the first “public university” to form a college esports program.
SOME MIGHT QUIBBLE with that declaration. After all, the higher ed esports phenomenon kicked off six years earlier, around 2009-2010, when students
all over the country began creating on-campus gaming groups that eventually banded together in clubs like
Collegiate Starleague and American Collegiate Esports League to participate in intra-college tournaments and run all-night gaming parties.
BY 2012, A group of students formed the Texas eSports Association (later renamed “Tespa”) to host tournaments at the University of Texas, Austin. Tespa expanded to other Texas schools and then nationally. Its focus is on student-formed chapters, which now number more than 236 in North America with another 77 in development. The organization, which has free and paid memberships, also serves as an intermediary to help college teams cut deals with ESPN, Amazon- owned Twitch and other outlets to broadcast and stream game play.
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