Playing with possibilities: esports opens doors for students

The esports season is almost wrapping up.

Syracuse’s Rocket League team goes on to play another school in the Power Esports Conference (PEC). The team’s coach, Daniel Gavilondo, sits behind his team, jotting down notes on their performance. 

“1:37, Gabe jumped early,” he wrote.

Gavilondo, who had been on the team’s roster months earlier, had just graduated from Syracuse. Knowing that he was willing to help, the university brought him back as the team’s coach.

Across the room sits Braden Cheverie-Leonard, the captain of the Call of Duty team, playing regular scrimmages. He at that time just returned from an immersion trip in late October to Berlin, an opportunity offered and sponsored by the university in collaboration with Riot Games. Cheverie-Leonard had more than a good time there. He had a blast.

Like traditional athletics, college esports in the U.S. is more than just students playing a game.

It is a place of possibilities.

Esports teams welcome students coming in with a love of esports and looking for competitiveness and opportunities. It can also serve as a retreat for former players. Evolving together with the industry, college esports is letting more people witness its potential to help shape the future of both students and esports itself.

Nikita Bair, the esports program manager at Syracuse University, led students during the immersion trip to Germany.

“We just met with Riot, saw their offices, did a tour of the space, saw the arena, watched a show live,” Bair said. “Every student saw every single category and was able to ask questions and talk to people about.”

From broadcast production and media to fan experience and risk management, students walked into Riot’s space and learned about almost every aspect of esports operations. They even watched a live show—the production part included.

Gen.G, an esports organization that has been working with Syracuse University this year, also had an employees stay in Berlin for a two-hour Q&A with the students. The employee shared some hands-on knowledge like big event preparation, which the students wouldn’t get to know otherwise.

🌎EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME🌍

Hear directly from our students about their trip to Berlin, Germany for @riotgames #Worlds2024

Video out now! (LINK BELOW ⏬) pic.twitter.com/MJjP06urZH

— Syracuse Esports (@Cuse_Esports) December 11, 2024

“I think they see college esports as a great opportunity to train the future employees of their organization and other competitive organizations,” Bair said. “Because they want to raise the quality of the esports industry.”

Through connections, students in a college esports program have a peek into how the professionals in the industry work. But information is not the only thing they can get out of college esports programs.

Travis Yang, Syracuse’s director of esports competition, once served on the board of directors at National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). He said NACE, besides hosting tournaments for esports varsities, also creates internship opportunities for students.

“Boise State has really good production that they run with their students,” Yang said. “So NACE actually hired Boise State to run production, to do streaming for all of the games in a season. Because that school had the right students and the right equipment to do that.”

In May, NACE hosted a championship tournament partnering with Full Sail University. “Full Sail is a school that specializes in film production,” Yang said. “So they already had amazing spaces. When we were there, NACE was using their space, but Full Sail actually had all of their student staff running different areas, broadcast production, player management, different things. So their students were getting internship experience and get paid to run the event.”

Yang agreed that college esports offers students all kinds of opportunities.

“Just like traditional athletics, at least in the US, right? So many people in college are playing.” He added. “We’re talking like less than 1% will be professional, right? But they’re going to school, they’re getting degrees, so a lot of them may end up still working in the sports industry, but not as players, just like in esports, right?” 

Gavilondo’s case serves as a good example, and similar things are happening elsewhere in the US too. Joshua Sharp, an alumnus of the University of Colorado, Boulder, said he went to Boulder because of the overall opportunities he saw there.

“There was a lot of student interest and a lot of student engagement in different esports events,” Sharp said. “And so going into it, there was a lot of actively involved student leadership and people that I looked up to to kind of help introduce me into the world of esports and gaming.”

During his time at Boulder, Sharp played for the Counter-Strike team and found that experience beneficial.

“Especially for myself, it provided me with a lot of opportunities to travel, to go to other states for tournaments and events that our teams have qualified for,” he said.

After graduating, Sharp worked in a few companies related to esports. He was the esports director for a professional team called Las Vegas Inferno, and later an arena manager for Valhallan Esports Training. Right now, he is helping coach the Apex Legend team at Boulder. 

Gavilondo and Sharp’s experience was not a surprise to Yang.

“Esports is obviously in its infancy and collegiate effort, but look at traditional sports, right?” Yang said. “So many alumni, they might come back and help with different events. A lot of them will come back and work for the University.”

“A lot of students who graduate with degrees in esports or are interested in industry will actually go to other universities and help start programs at those universities,” Yang added. “That’s kind of the phase we’re in right now. It’s just still spreading to schools. Once most of the schools have esports, then we can build up and actually come up with more positions, more events.”