Nathan Goodwin, Coordinator for Esports and E-Ventures at Emporia State, has made esports on campus possible. Now, with funding and the necessity for an official space for competitors, coaches, and E-sport athletes, a new arena is being constructed in Cremer Hall to satisfy its needs.
Esports stands for electronic sports and according to Goodwin it is “essentially, just competitive video games.”
“The best way to think about it is to compare it to traditional sports,” Goodwin said. “You have professional teams with big sponsorships, they have coaches and jerseys and practice regiments.”
The benefit with esports is that it isn’t limited to local colleges. Goodwin says they could possibly face colleges from all around the country.
In fall of 2021, Goodwin transferred to ESU as a student and decided to create an E-sports RSO on campus. Butch Sim, assistant professor of business administration, came to Goodwin to help him with his idea and make his RSO a “full fledged varsity program.”
By working with Sim and Will Phillips, another assistant professor of business administration, Goodwin was able to get his idea going and esports became an official program in the spring semester of 2023.
The new arena is said to be done very soon and will be the home of the esports program at ESU. It will mainly be a dedicated area for official tournaments and matches. Players will have 24/7 access to play and practice, but this space is not only for players. Goodwin says this new arena will also be for students who need higher computing power. Goodwin would also like to promote this space to professors and give them the chance to teach programs and concepts, such as 3-D rendering.
“We also want to open it up to students, or maybe RSOs, fraternities, sororities, if any of them wanted to host parties or game nights that the space is uniquely suited for that,” Goodwin said.
Students can also use this program to contribute skills to their major.
“Students get to learn about whatever they are interested in. If a student is interested in going into Marketing, then they can work in marketing for us. If they are interested in going into IT or broadcasting, they can do that for us. Students are getting a really unique on-hands experience,” Goodwin said.
Funding for the project came from the City of Emporia and ESU itself, and the program is almost completely student led. There are student game managers, student coaches, students promoting on social media, and more.
Through esports, students have the chance to earn scholarships towards their education, and most of the money earned in esports comes from sponsorships, such as being able to put a logo on a jersey and on streams. Donations and prizes are also a way to earn money in this industry.
As of now, coaches for this new program consist of Cole Williamson and Christopher Pine, both music majors, and Jackson Regginis, a mathematics education major. Esports will Varsity and a JV teams for games like Overwatch, Valorant, and League of Legends. There is even an online Chess game to compete in.
“Esports has been growing steadily since about 2009 and with it has come this unique diverse group of people that before really didn’t have a way to interact…So bringing in esports gives people someone to connect with, something to do with their time that enriches their college experience,” Goodwin said.