By Andrew Forsyth
A pastime that has been held to the bedrooms and basements of teenagers now makes its way onto the college campus as an equal to football, hockey, and other regularly offered sports. With many universities adopting the new sport, students have a new avenue when applying to schools.
Esports has grown throughout the nation and has become a regular offering at many universities in the country. The National Association of College Esports boasts over 200 schools nationwide on its website.
The introduction of esports benefits students, although it also benefits the universities. The ability to entice online students with an organization they can be involved in increases recruitment and retention.
“It brings in students,” Mark Alicea, advisor and coach of D’Youville University esports, said.
Canisius is working to drive retention and recruitment efforts directly through the esports programs on campus.
“It is going to be a big play moving forward, especially as it starts to build and move forward,” said Nick Stenzel, assistant athletic director of athletic facilities at Canisius University.
Three esports programs are operating in various phases between D’Youville, Canisius, and Buffalo State University. The biggest of the three is at D’Youville, which recently opened a new state-of-the-art eSports arena.
The $200,000 project, funded by Spectrum Enterprises, pushes the college to the forefront of esports in Buffalo. D’Youville participates in two leagues, the East Coast Conference league against schools in the region, as well as in the NACE.
“We also play in the NACE, a national eSports conference, against many different schools,” Alicea said.
These schools include the likes of the University of Georgia and Florida State. He added that there are 1,300 schools in just D’Youville’s division alone.
D’Youville
offers games, including Overwatch 2, Rocket League and Valorant. As well it is
adding new teams in multiple different games. It also holds internal Madden
leagues for any students on campus.
Canisius invested in esports early on. The esports program has been around since 2018 and is looking to grow.
Canisius has built its program from the ground floor and grown the program and esports in the area over the past five years. The school took advantage of an uptick in gaming, specifically online in specific communities, and wanted to add that sense of community on Campus.
Canisius plays in the Mid-American Conference. The gamers play side by side in the same divisions as the athletes of the traditional sports of football, hockey, and other offered sports. The organization is recognized as a club team, although there is also a travel team to attend matches in the conference area.
Though esports is not quite at the level of football or other traditional sports at Canisius, in the last few years, it has seen growth in the member size and hopes to expand that number even more.
“Last year, we had about 30 individuals on the roster. We’ve almost doubled that this year; we’re at 55,” Stenzel said. “We will take roughly 28 to 30 individuals to the MAC Championship in March.”
Canisius offers an esports lab on campus grounds with 10 state-of-the-art PCs and gear to go along with it. Canisius has League of Legends, Valorant, and Rocket League for league play.
Buffalo State offers an esports option, though it is still in its infancy. Buffalo State is focused on building the foundations without real space for an esports lab or facility for now.
“There are challenges obviously of having a space dedicated to esports right now, but we are just trying to find a lot of the resources we can use here at Buffalo State to make sure this program is efficient,” Fardan Allen, assistant director of student leadership and engagement at Buffalo State, said.
The program now offers an NBA 2K tournament, Smash Bros tournaments, and competing with other SUNY teams. The program also pays for membership to compete in the Eastern Conference Athletic Conference, which includes teams outside the SUNY conference.
The Buffalo State organization looks to Canisius and D’Youville and other established programs outside the area as a blueprint for success. The goal remains to find a dedicated space on campus for eSports.
The organization just needs a starting point. Fardan Allen said it doesn’t need fancy computers right now but rather a place for the students to congregate and play games without needing to reserve time and lug around equipment.
