If you ever thought your children, siblings or friends were spending too much time on video games, it might surprise you to learn that esports is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The esports market is expected to gross more than $1 billion this year and is projected to continue growing. And as typical of Fort Hays State University, we are not new to the \u201cgame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Student clubs at FHSU have been holding game tournaments at in-person get-togethers called LAN (Local Area Network) parties since about 1999. A large event open to the public called TigerLAN happens once each semester, and these have been held regularly over the past 20 years with the most recent \u2013 TigerLAN 41 \u2013 on Feb. 22. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally, the Advanced\nTechnology Student Organization (ATSO) sponsored these events on campus in the\nMemorial Union. As club membership grew, some gaming members split off and\ncreated their own club, known simply as Esports Club. Both Esports Club and\nATSO work together now to manage TigerLAN tournaments in a variety of\nelectronic game titles. Over the years, games have changed, but popular titles\nnow include \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d \u201cOverwatch,\u201d \u201cSuper Smash Brothers,\u201d \u201cCS:GO,\u201d\n\u201cHearthstone,\u201d \u201cFortnite,\u201d \u201cRocket League\u201d and \u201cMinecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This coming fall, the next evolution of our esports program is a varsity team. The esports gaming lab in Hammond Hall, room 110, will support club and varsity team practices as well as scheduled tournaments. Gaming hardware will be available for fall 2020 participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In learning more about sports, I was surprised to learn about the rigor involved. According to our director of esports and associate professor of informatics Kevin Shaffer, \u201cEsport is not a push-it-shove-it or knock-it-over type of sport, but it certainly is a very competitive individual and team-based activity that has real physical and mental demands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProfessional esports players are on special diets, going to gyms for regular exercise, dealing with stress, training in various aspects of their craft as well as planning team strategy and reviewing opponent gameplay video,\u201d he said. \u201cThey hold regular team planning and strategy planning sessions, and they scope out their competition \u2013 just like any traditional sports team. Player strategies, coaching, teamwork and planning are all part of the game, just like any other sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Esports Club has given me a home on campus,\u201d said club President Jake \u201cVynaraz\u201d Boucher, a sophomore education major from Lake Odessa, Mich. \u201cIt has brought me out of my dorm room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have found friends who\nenjoy what I do, and I am learning skills that will be very valuable outside of\ngaming,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have members of all different backgrounds, but we have a\nshared love in gaming. I never feel like I can\u2019t get better, and I can grow\nwith them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For him, varsity esports\nwill \u201cbe a big sense of pride and accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been working hard for this to happen, and I can\u2019t wait to share it with the community,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone is welcome, and we make an effort for everyone to be included on the club level, even if you\u2019re not a competitive gamer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Trevon \u201cFin\u201d Tatum, an FHSU student from Goddard majoring in biology, esports at FHSU \u201cchanged my entire trajectory in college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was always a rather shy\nand quiet kid, and I did not see myself getting involved in anything on campus\nwhen I started my freshman year. Luckily, I saw a flyer for esports at the\nback-to-school picnic, and a friend of mine got me to ask about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is on the competitive League of Legends team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy passion for video games spread into many friendships and a leadership role in the club,” he said. “It’s been an honor getting to help create something so much larger than myself, and I can\u2019t express how thankful I am for the experience.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prospect of competition\nand self-improvement drove him to join, but \u201cthat very quickly changed to\nwanting to connect with new, like-minded people and gain friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow, I also want to solidify esports\u2019 place on campus to provide this amazing opportunity to other students like me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was extremely introverted my whole life. I still am, but I have broken out of my shell. The organization and the people have helped me so much as a person, and I owe them all so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love how engaged and\nconnected our students are as they participate in their love for esports. Not\nonly is this a great engagement opportunity, it is also a frontier career\nproviding a learning environment where hands-on experience meets the needs of\nreal-world jobs. Plus, scholarships are available: the $1,000 Esports\nLeadership Scholarship and the $500 Esports Gold Scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information about our esports program or to try out for a position on club and varsity teams, contact Shaffer at kshaffer@fhsu.edu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you ever thought your children, siblings or friends were spending too much time on video games, it might surprise you to learn that esports… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55260,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55259\/revisions\/55260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}