NC has basketball, volleyball, and soccer, but a new group of students are playing a different game.
In winter 2019, Niagara College launched its first ever eSports club. Headed up by second year Sports Management student and club president Taylor McVey, nearly 40 students have already joined the team.
Rising in popularity since the 1980s, eSports is a competitive platform for video game tournaments where players may battle in teams or one-on-one for a title or reward.
As a growing field, eSports opportunities are now showing up in the Canadian job market seeking professionals from a variety of fields including business management, event management, sports management, analytics, marketing and communications. E-sports has also fallen in step with traditional sports regarding brand sponsorship contracts, marketing and recognizing professional eSports players.
“eSports has been on the Sport Management program’s radar for some time and now it’s at a point where we can’t ignore it,” said Sport Management professor Christopher Psutka.
The concept for an eSports club emerged when last year’s League and Tournament Management class created and ran the College’s first eSports Tournament (NC eSports Cup) as part of the course. When the League and Tournament Management was discontinued for the 2018-2019 school year, Psutka decided to create a Sport Management eSports Club.
Solely run by NC Sport Management students, the club is managed by a president and leadership team consisting for five students: Noah Haslip, Travis Cavanaugh, Chris O’Brien, Raisa Holmo and Siddarth Gala. All students were elected by their peers.
The club aims to enhance and support the educational experience of Sport Management students.
“With this being our first year of the eSports Club; we are really trying to lay the groundwork for the future,” said McVey.
The club is looking forward to hosting its first eSports tournament on April 4 in the Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus cafeteria.
“Niagara College and its learners will benefit greatly from the Sport Management students creation and operation of an eSports club as it will provide new ways to enrich their college experience as they interact with peers from across the NC community” said Damian Goulbourne, Associate Dean of the Applied School of Business and Tourism.
The club looks forward to engaging the NC student community in an eSports intramural league in the Fall 2019 semester. Students across all disciplines as encouraged to sign up for the league this September on IMLeagues.com, which is the platform used for NC Intramurals.
“Even further down the line, it would be incredible to see a varsity support or club team arise from the eSport Intramural where they would represent Niagara College against the rest of the schools in the OCAA,” said McVey.
