After making its first foray into the competitive gaming world last year, the University of St. Thomas is building out a new esports center at its Montrose campus.
UST established its gaming club and competitive esports teams in September 2020. Around eight months into the program's existence, student engagement has been strong, said Justin Pelt, UST's assistant director of esports. The university has fielded competitive teams playing massively popular titles including Overwatch, League of Legends and Rocket League. Freshman George Fakes, president of the UST esports club and a member of the school's competitive Overwatch team, said some 150 students had joined the club as members since it launched last year.
With the campus esports center coming online later this summer, UST aims to develop more competitive esports rosters, encourage new academic pathways for students and continue developing a community for gaming enthusiasts attending classes there. The esports center is being built out in a roughly 300-square-foot space in the basement of the Doherty Library. Once completed, the center will house 12 gaming stations with PCs and special gaming monitors with fast refresh rates. UST plans to open the esports center sometime in June, Pelt said.
Aiming for greatness
During UST's first year on the competitive gaming scene, the university filled out its rosters with students already enrolled in classes. The school had enough students to fill out teams after holding tryouts in November 2020, just two months after officially launching the program.
Next year, UST aims to take its esports teams to the next level, Pelt said.
"Moving into this year, I've had a full year to recruit," Pelt said. "I can confidently say that we are slated to bring in at least 20 students this year, which is a good number."
Each of those roughly 20 students recruited to the esports program are receiving either award money from the university or scholarship money from the esports program itself, Pelt said. This summer, UST's League of Legends team plans to travel to St. Louis to compete in a collegiate esports invitational hosted by Maryville University.
"That's going to be a really great opportunity for us to gauge where we are as a program within our first recruiting year," Pelt said.
Building a community
While some students may pursue careers in esports and the video game industry after college, many students with other career goals are joining the campus club because of a shared love of gaming. Fakes and freshman Jahmill Akhtar have been gaming enthusiasts for years now. They founded an esports club while attending high school in Klein Independent School District before coming to UST to study biology.
In addition to their school work, both Akhtar and Fakes hold leadership positions at the esports club — Akhtar serves as the club's vice president — and they have both played on the UST Overwatch team. Through their participation in the club, Fakes and Akhtar aim to grow the program's reach to even more students who love gaming.
The club hosts a continuing server in the hit game Minecraft for UST students to gather in weekly virtual community events. The community events were recognized by the university as the most creative virtual event of the year in 2020, Pelt said. The esports club also won an award for being the best new club in 2020, he said. Out of all the presidents of clubs registered with the university, Fakes won president of the year in 2020.
"We actually took home the most awards out of any club in totality in our first year, which I think we're really excited about," Pelt said.
Ultimately, UST wants its esports club to feel like a family, and it strives to be as inclusive and diverse as possible. The club and competitive teams are co-ed and open for anyone to join. Half of the club's officer team is made up of women, Fakes said.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, which has significantly impacted in-person learning on college campuses, having virtual options for students has been even more important. UST plans to return to full in-person instruction this fall after using a hybrid model during the spring semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"There's so much diversity within the club — all different races, genders, ethnicities — that it's really brought a lot of people together," Fakes said. "Especially in a virtual world that we're kind of living in today, I think the esports program couldn't have come at a better time."
Academic focus
Aside from fielding competitive teams and fostering an inclusive environment for video game lovers on the UST campus, the esports program aims to offer students the tools they need to grow in the digital arts and sciences. Beena George, chief innovation officer for UST and the former dean of the university's Cameron School of Business, said the school is looking at different ways to help students train for job opportunities in the gaming space.
"We're looking at esports coaching, the gaming business, digital communication," George said. "We're trying to build a curriculum that wraps around all the different pieces of the game."
UST plans to offer a minor program centered around esports coaching beginning in the upcoming fall semester.
The UST esports program also helps students get industry experience with professional organizations. A handful of student interns from UST are working with the Houston Outlaws, the local esports franchise competing in Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch League. The Outlaws, based in The Woodlands, employ pro players that compete in the world's highest levels of competitive Overwatch. Fakes and Akhtar are both interns for the team.
"It's a really good opportunity to see directly, from a professional standpoint, how esports is growing and to learn from the pros themselves," said Fakes. "We'll definitely apply that to how we're expanding the organization here on campus."
