THE GROWTH OF ESPORTS
In February, Stevenson opened its new student activities space on the Owings Mills campus, the Garrison Hall Student Commons. Among the features of this modern, student-friendly area is a state-of-the-art esports suite, home to Stevenson’ s esports club.
To watch a video about Stevenson esports, go to stevenson. edu / SUesports
Esports is a new venture for the university— but it’ s a popular one. In esports, short for“ electronic sports,” individuals and teams play a schedule of video game matches and competitions. Although the global presence of professional esports really only began to surge in the 2010s, today it has millions of followers watching the games on a live streaming video platform.
The events are held in arenas around the world, oftentimes drawing more viewers than the NBA, NHL, and MLB championship games. Top professional players can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in endorsements and prize earnings.
On the collegiate level, growth has been remarkably swift. In 2014, Robert Morris University announced its scholarship-sponsored League of Legends team. Now, there are more than 60 programs at U. S. universities and its momentum isn’ t slowing. For example, 22 percent of all millennial-aged men watch esports, a number nearly equal to those in that demographic watching baseball or hockey. Additionally, Newzoo— a leading provider of market information about global games and esports— projects that college esports will be a $ 1.5 billion industry by the year 2020.
“ There is a clear desire for collegiate level esports, and it only seems to be growing,” says Vice President of Enrollment Management Mark Hergan.“ We are proud to offer esports as a modern, communitybuilding experience for both our current and incoming students.”
BRINGING ESPORTS TO CAMPUS
“ When we were approached about adding a serious esports arena, we felt that it was another extension of appealing to more students, especially in this area where esports offerings are harder to come by than, say, the West Coast,” Hergan notes.“ We thought,‘ How could we use the existing space we had on the Owings Mills campus as a tool for those interested in this emerging and evolving sport?’”
Hergan was approached by Tyler Price( computer information systems’ 17), a graduate student in the university’ s Business and Technology Management program, who saw a need for esports during his undergraduate years. He served as the catalyst for
10 | VENTURES / SUMMER 2018