Another Arkansas college plans to enter the burgeoning, patchwork world of competitive collegiate video gaming.
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will start an esports club team in the fall, the school announced last week.
The university said it intends to eventually offer scholarships and to apply for membership with the National Association of Collegiate Esports, a fast-expanding association of colleges with esports programs that is similar to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The esports association formed in 2016 to govern the sport, although many colleges with esports teams have no intention of joining.
There is no central authority over esports at any level.
While esports teams are growing in numbers at colleges across the country at the urging of students, oversight in a manner similar to basketball or hockey is proving tricky. Unlike other sports, the actual games played by esports competitors are owned by companies. Because of licensing issues, most schools stick with games in which the makers have already offered up licensing plans designed for college teams, essentially allowing more people to play than just the license holder.
Most companies haven't done that, and many already organize their own tournaments with their own payouts for winners, said Henderson State University Esports Director John Price, an assistant professor of communication and theater arts. Even the companies with college programs still organize their own tournaments and have established quasi-governing bodies for schools that play their games.
"The amount of effort it's taken for us to get some of the titles on our computers is astronomical," Price said.
Arkansas State University hasn't yet selected the games the team will play, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Bryan Terry said.
The patchwork of governance has led many colleges to decide not to join the National Association of Collegiate Esports, Price said. They play within the companies' tournaments, through school-organized competitions with nearby colleges or through a league established by the colleges' athletics conferences. Big Ten schools have done that, Price said, but Henderson State University's athletics conference -- the Great American Conference -- has not organized anything.
Experts have cited cash-prize tournaments and federal gender-equity requirements as among the challenges to allowing esports teams to be officially sanctioned NCAA athletics programs. College athletes must be amateurs, meaning they can't win cash prizes. Many tournaments have made their cash prizes scholarships.
As it stands, amateurism is not something ASU would regulate, Terry said.
When asked how licensing or existing tournaments with cash prizes could pose challenges to ASU's esports program, Terry said, "It's still a little early to gauge that issue just yet."
The school will hold an informational meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Health Studies, Room 222.
The school recently held a meeting at Jonesboro High School and afterward received more than 150 messages from students who were interested, Terry said.
Several colleges in Arkansas have esports clubs, but competitive esports club teams that offer scholarships are rare.
Last fall, Henderson State University billed itself at the first college in Arkansas to offer scholarships to esports players. It will start offering scholarships in the fall. Lyon College started its esports team last fall, as well.
Lyon College is the only college in Arkansas that is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Esports.
Price said Henderson State officials have discussed applying to join the National Association of Collegiate Esports but don't have plans to.
Henderson State offers three different games for students: League of Legends, Overwatch and Super Smash Bros.
The companies that make League of Legends and Overwatch are friendly to college teams, operating their own leagues and offering licensing packages that make the games more accessible to groups of students, Price said. That's what most other schools play and for those same reasons, he said.
Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game primarily featuring Nintendo characters. Overwatch is a multi-player "shooter" game in which players attempt to maintain peace after a war in a futuristic version of Earth. League of Legends pits teams against each other through their control of "champions" in a fictional world.
Jack Harrison, a senior psychology major, plays Super Smash Bros., which he said is less of a team game and more of an individual sport.
Harrison, 21, also works at the university's esports lab, which he described as a top-end facility with top-end equipment. He practices about 20-30 hours each week and coaches other Super Smash Bros. players.
Having an esports program has allowed players to improve their game, whereas previously many would have just taught themselves, Harrison said. That means players' growth has been "massive" over short periods of time, he said.
"It blows me away, and it makes me so, so proud to see them," he said. "So, yeah, I've been having a blast."
Because the virtual world of gaming is often physically isolating, having an esports team means many of the players now have an opportunity to meet, Harrison said.
Henderson State's esports lab cost tens of thousands of dollars to establish, Price said, recalling that it may have been between $80,000 and $100,000. Outside of that startup cost, the team has an annual budget of about $3,000, Price said.
Price said Henderson State's first season has been exciting to watch. University leadership has actively supported the team, and the 20 or so students on the team have taken it seriously, he said.
The stereotype of gamers is people who sit around staring at a screen with their eyes glazed over. But that's not Price's team.
"When you come down to it, while it's the not the same as running track ... they're still exercising the same amount of dedication and focus and effort," he said.
"Esports" is a catchall term for electronic games of skill, Harrison said, where the stereotype of "video games" doesn't apply.
"I think most people think of video games as things where you just kind of turn your mind off and escape into a fantasy world," he said. "Esports is really about competing and becoming the best that you can physically, just like any other sport."
Metro on 04/07/2019