Esports catching on at Region universities | College Sports | nwitimes.com – nwitimes.com

But times are changing as playing video games competitively — commonly known as esports — takes off around the United States and in the Region.

The Entertainment Software Association’s 2021 report on the video game industry estimated there were roughly 227 million video-game players of all ages in the United States. People between the ages of 18 and 34 made up about 38% of gamers, while people under 18 made up about 20%. The report also noted that 77% of people it polled reported playing video games, an increase from 65% in 2020.

Now a sophomore at Purdue Northwest, Batara is on scholarship as one of 37 student-athletes that make up the varsity esports program, which launched in 2020.

He’s enjoying every moment, enjoying the competition and resources that other student-athletes on campus have access to. But Batara didn’t always have support in his ambitions to compete in college.

“I told (my parents) about the esports thing and they were like, ‘No way. You’re going to college for a degree, and then you can play video games,’” Batara recalled. “They harped on me, ‘Please don’t. It’s not worth it.’”

Batara bet on himself anyway. He believed he could do it, and he had interest.

He was being recruited by Justin Bragg to play at Illinois College, where Bragg had started an esports program in 2018. When Bragg moved to Purdue Northwest to launch its program, Batara decided to transfer from community college and join the Pride, while also switching his major from music to computer science.

Batara’s parents have since come around to his craft, especially once they saw the doors it could open for their son. After he enjoyed playing sports competitively while growing up, he related the support to that which traditional athletes often receive from family and friends.

“Every time I play, they know who I am, they see my name,” Batara said. “Whenever I do something crazy, they’ll call me after the game like, ‘Man, you did amazing!’ My dad made me do a lot of sports growing up. To see him actually happy and supportive, it makes me feel like when I was playing soccer, baseball and wrestling when I grew up.”

“They support me and they’ve been telling my whole family to watch me,” he added. “It’s those little things that make me want to be a better player.”

Batara and many of his teammates have reached the ranks of master (approximately the top 0.034% of players), grandmaster (top 0.028%) or even Challenger (top 0.012%) during their playing days. Ranking as high as many of the Pride’s esports athletes is statistically comparable to the roughly 0.03% of basketball players that reach the NBA. In other words: unlikely.

A changing landscape

League of Legends — a team strategy game where players select characters to play with to destroy the other team’s base — has the largest esports following globally, but as other competitions get off the ground, Bragg expects more growth to come.

“Anyone is able to do this if they really wanted to because there’s no physical limitations compared to traditional sports,” Bragg said. “You don’t have to be 6-foot-5, you don’t have to bench-press 300 pounds, you don’t have to run a 4.4 40 (yard dash time).”

Bragg noted that his teams now have access to the same college experience — scholarships, academic support, access to facilities and competitive opportunities — that traditional athletes get. The Pride are expecting to open two esports arenas at its campuses in Hammond and Westville, which will feature 30 gaming stations and provide a specialized space for the programs to develop and meet in.

As professional esports continue to become more prominent, universities have a greater incentive to invest in programs of their own. Sports Business Journal reported that the 2021 League of Legends pulled in an average minute audience of more than 30 million viewers, an increase of more than 20% from 2020.

According to an ESPN report from 2019, the National Association of Collegiate Esports had 134 members. Indiana had two teams on the list in Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne and Trine University in Angola.

Now, there are nine in-state NACE members, including Valparaiso, Franklin College, Anderson University, Indiana University East, Manchester University, University of St. Francis and Purdue-Fort Wayne. Purdue Northwest primarily competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the same conference it competes in for its other varsity programs.

Valparaiso started its own esports program in 2019, and Overwatch player Franco Raimondi can hardly believe the opportunities at his fingertips now. The Genoa, Illinois, native has seen the perception of competitive video gaming gain far more acceptance than it had when he was falling in love with it.

“The culture about it is ever-growing and changing and becoming normalized and accepted,” Raimondi said. “It’s not seen as, ‘Oh, you play video games?’ It’s more like, ‘Oh, man, you’re an esports player? That’s awesome.’”

The Beacons now have more than 50 esports student-athletes.

“On a personal level, balancing some of my priorities — my school work, academics, social life, mental health and athletics, being esports — it’s not much different than I imagine traditional athletics are,” Raimondi said.

Get used to it, folks, as the gradual introduction of esports to mainstream audiences has followed the normalization of video games as a whole in modern lifestyles.

According to 2017 data from Pew Research Center, 43% of US adults say they often or sometimes play video games on a computer, TV, console or portable device like a cellphone.

When one of Valparaiso’s Overwatch teams recently captured the New England Collegiate Conference title, Raimondi and his teammates got to take it all in and celebrate.

“Those memories will be forever solidified in my college experience,” Raimondi said. “Seeing people pop off, seeing people just absolutely dominate the game, it’s comparable to somebody throwing a Hail Mary down a football field. They save the day and they turn the tide of the game right at the end.”

Steven Fowler, a senior at Purdue Northwest, joined the Rocket League team after seeing a post about the program in 2020. He competed in traditional sports while attending Highland, and returning to high-level competition and the thrills and trials that accompany it, Fowler is living — and thriving in — a lifestyle he never believed he had the support or resources for.

“I was like, ‘Hey, I’m pretty good at Rocket League,’” Fowler said. “I might as well try out and see what it’s all about.’ It’s been a ton of fun.”

Taking hold around the Region

More esports programs are on the way, too.

In August, Calumet College posted a job listing for an esports coach. Responsibilities included collaboration with the admissions and advising departments “to recruit and retain eSport student-athletes” and to “recruit and maintain annual eSport roster number of 20.”

Calumet College confirmed it is in the hiring process, and that a program launch is in the works.

A spokesperson from Indiana Northwest also said the school’s intramural and student activities director is working on beginning an esports club.

Purdue Northwest became the first public school in Indiana to fund a varsity esports program. Enthusiastic about its potential for growth, Purdue Northwest Chancellor Thomas Keon pitched athletic director Rick Costello on the idea of starting a competitive program early in Costello’s tenure.

Costello was all for it.

“Not bad for a guy that grew up playing Pong, Atari and Ms. Pac-Man, huh? We were really thrilled at the growth worldwide in esports and thought that would be a great way to bring a number of different students from all over the globe to PNW,” Costello said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, competitions have been able to continue due to online play.

Purdue Northwest also posted a listing for an assistant coaching position to aid Bragg as the Pride continue to add student-athletes and move into their new facilities in the spring of 2022.

The school plans to add more spots as Purdue Northwest prepares to start Call of Duty, Super Smash Brothers and Valorant teams.

Bragg and Costello agree that the program is helping attract strong students to campus as well.

“I really think that being able to create an esports team and be able to recruit students to be able to do that is really big because you can find high-quality students that will be part of an esports team,” Bragg said.

The school now has an estimated 300 student-athletes, after announcing the inception of esports in 2020 and men’s and women’s track and field programs in 2021.

Costello is hoping the Pride can be a competitive leader in esports.

“We treat it as any other sport,” he said. “The student-athletes that can be in esports are held to the same exact standards as our NCAA student athletes. So we’re really serious about the quality experience that they have, and then we want to be really good at it.”