Competitive gaming, also known as esports, has gained widespread popularity over the past decade, occasionally breaching the public mainstream when large events dole out millions of dollars in prize money to young prodigies. As esports organizations push into the collegiate sphere and video gaming continues to establish itself as a spectator sport, many universities have established programs to field competitive rosters for extramural competition. In fall 2020, SUNY launched the SUNY Esports League, with events offered for six popular gaming titles.

In the 2020-2021 inaugural season of the SUNY Esports League, Binghamton University fared relatively well. The ability for two BU teams to be champions of their events was an undeniable indication of the gaming talent already residing in our dorms, but as other schools expanded their esports programs and began to compete nationally, BU has stagnated.

In 2020, SUNY Buffalo moved five esports titles to varsity status, and Albany has had a dedicated competitive gaming program since 2019. With both of these schools unveiling facilities for a new breed of student athletes, BU’s esports amenities, run entirely through the Video Game Association (VGA), are beginning to look archaic.

As a freshman who has played video games competitively since I was 12 years old, the possibility of continuing my esports career into college was something I sacrificed by choosing BU. I don’t regret my choice — there aren’t a lot of college esports programs running small esports titles such as SMITE in their repertoire — but I’d like for future Bearcats to be spared of having to make a similar decision for themselves. Despite trailing the large SUNY pack, there’s still time for BU to help blaze a trail in college esports nationally, and I believe there’s already significant interest on campus.

Bin “Ren” Zhong is the manager of the University at Buffalo’s varsity League of Legends (LoL) team, which finished top eight in the collegiate world championship this year. I reached out to Zhong over Discord to ask him some questions about the school’s program. His responses gave me insight into what would need to be done here at BU to create a serious esports program, and what we could expect out of such an investment.

Right now, the greatest barrier to BU’s esports success is the lack of a student-run organization dedicated specifically to competitive gaming. Our VGA is a fantastic club — it is hundreds of members strong. It unites the BU gaming community, including those interested in esports, but its inadequacies are exposed by underwhelming esports involvement in a school with over 14,000 undergraduate students. Scrolling through their Discord server, I see competitive opportunities and tournament flyers buried among in-house events. The emphasis on casual intramural involvement offered by the VGA is not a problem, but it necessitates an esports club that can act, on its own accord, to promote and develop esports on campus.

A standalone organization would better accommodate the growing crowd of competitive gamers like me in post-pandemic BU. I spent my years of high school grinding SMITE for three to five hours daily after school and becoming one of the best players in the world. Just earlier this year, I led my team to a first-place finish in the American Video Game League (AVGL) Summer Showdown, but unfortunately, I don’t have a place at BU yet to directly apply the skills I learned in SMITE to help other students achieve their esports goals.

Not only will an esports student organization allow competitive teams to form on campus and bring former high school esports athletes out of the woodwork, it will also be the foundation for esports recruitment. According to Zhong, the University at Buffalo’s investment in esports has been a factor in the college selection of many of their esports program’s incoming freshmen. Their LoL team in particular, which finished in the top eight in the collegiate LoL North American championship last year, has attracted many freshmen to the program thanks to their recent successes. It will take a while for BU to get up to the level of the University at Buffalo, but starting an esports club will allow that progress to start being made.

Looking further into the future, the construction of an esports or gaming lounge would take a moderate investment but help push an already established esports program to the next level. The University at Albany and University at Buffalo already have esports lounges outfitted with high-powered computer and console setups. A gaming lounge constructed at BU could be booked for both esports and VGA events. Zhong also commented on Buffalo’s facilities, stating, “[The lounge] makes it better for team chemistry to meet in person … Teams without chemistry are often pretty silent or non-confrontational over voice chat on Discord.”

As nice as that prospect sounds, we’re still yet to take the first, and most obvious, step toward a legitimate BU esports program: getting a club chartered through the Student Association (SA). An esports club is the best way to accommodate a growing niche of competitive gamers at BU and will serve as a starting point for us to catch up to schools like the University at Buffalo. The future of collegiate esports is as bright as ever, and BU should invest in it.

Jacob Wisnock is a freshman majoring in political science.