Esports

Sitting competitors

Sitting competitors

Syracuse University’s first esports communications and management majors arrived in August, joining an upstart varsity esports team that continues to grow.

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Nick Yang
Braden Cheverie-Leonard and his Call of Duty team compete with teams from other schools.

In the group exercise room, students pant and sweat during their yoga session. On the multipurpose activity court, there’s the squeak of sneakers and the “hoorays” of soccer players cheering on their teammates.  

 The esports gaming room seems darker and quieter, at least from the outside. Inside, ​the same shouts of passion emanate from the players sitting in front of monitors instead of streaking down the hardwood.  

The esports gaming room at the Barnes Center has been where Syracuse esports thrives, hosting varsity games Monday through Thursday and welcoming other college students just to enjoy the time playing games.  

Beginning in the fall of 2024, Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics began to offer a first-of-its-kind joint program of esports communications and management. Earlier in the spring of 2024, ​Joey Gawrysiak, the executive director of esports at Syracuse University, offered club teams the opportunity to be promoted to varsity standing​. That elevates esports at Syracuse to the highest level of competition, joining more than 260 other schools across North America with varsity esports programs, according to the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Esports is finding its way to become a part of campus life not just at Syracuse University, but many other colleges as well.​ 

“There’s always challenges starting a new program, like an esports program,” Gawrysiak said. “Even that phrase, esports program, is hard to define on a college campus because within this program, we have the academic component, which is the esports major out of both Falk and Newhouse, first joint degrees Syracuse has. And then you’ve got the kind of the recreational side, which has the varsity competition, that highest level competition.” 

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Nick Yang
The Esports Gaming Hub is one of two facilities on campus to accommodate the growing esport program at Syracuse.

Even though it is only the first year bringing in the varsity component, Gawrysiak thinks the program is in a good spot. Syracuse collaborated with seven other colleges to launch the Power Esports Conference (PEC) this August, offering esports competition for institutions with Division I athletics, and is building up two new facilities, one at Schine Student Center and is about to be ready, and the other at Marley Education Center, alongside the current one at Barnes. 

Braden Cheverie-Leonard, the captain of the Call of Duty varsity team, is excited to see Gawrysiak’s success in building the program. 

In part, that’s because he hired Gawrysiak.  

“I was the student representative on the hiring committee for esports staff. So I was the only student who was, you know, asking for feedback on those decisions,” Cheverie-Leonard said. “So I got to sit in on Joey’s interview process and eventually his final pitch. And then, obviously, he’s very, very impressed. He was my number one.” 

Before landing in Syracuse, the 20-year-old junior got recruited by other colleges with a concrete foundation for esports to play Call of Duty. But a big school name like Syracuse made Cheverie-Leonard come here without an offered scholarship. 

“Getting on campus, seeing our current esports facility, it was the best facility I’d ever toured,” Cheverie-Leonard said. “So I kind of asked around. I said, ‘Hey, this facility is fantastic. You guys offer esports teams?’” 

​​He didn’t love SU’s initial answer.​ 

“And they said, at the time, they just got their club esports team up and running, and that was a huge victory for them,” Cheverie-Leonard said. “And I sat there, and I really thought we could do more.” 

So Cheverie-Leonard did his lobbying. He eventually got a promise from the chancellor to progress the then-club system to a varsity program. He had some tough times over the last two years but is happy where he is right now, as his team is putting up talents and his program is making steady progress. 

But like many other programs, esports can’t stand alone on campus. It needs understanding, and then participation. 

​​“We got ways to go when you compare it to football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball,” Gawrysiak said. “The hardest part is getting people to understand what you’re trying to do with esports.” 

Six years ago, Gawrysiak started the esports program at Shenandoah University, which also featured both academic and varsity components, and he had a lot of leeway to try new things. Gawrysiak wanted to bring the same level of commitment and the same success story to Syracuse in front of a larger brand and a bigger student body. 

“It’s more than just varsity competition, which I would say most schools by far are just focused on that varsity, highest level of competition,” Gawrysiak said. “We want to make sure that students understand there’s so much more to it than just competing in video games at a high level. We want to make sure they understand the professional development, the transferability of skills that they get so they can go work, sure, in esports, but also work in traditional sports or entertainment or businesses or production.” 

J. Aaron Hardwick assisted Gawrysiak in building the esports program during his Shenandoah years. He now works at Wake Forest University as an assistant professor, the symphony orchestra director and the advisor for Wake Forest’s esports club. He is paving the ground for esports at a different place like Gawrysiak.  

Hardwick also agreed that integrating esports into colleges is a long and challenging process, in part because you don’t need college to turn pro as an esports competitor. 

“When you talk about traditional sports,​ t​here’s a recruitment pipeline that goes straight from high school into college, into a pro league,” he said. “Esports isn’t like that, right? You can be a 14-year-old kid, and the next thing you know, you’re on a pro team.” 

That leaves esports in flux.  

“We’re trying to figure out, like, is this something that should be an academic thing, or should it be a competitive thing, or should it be both?” Hardwick asked.  

Students like Cheverie-Leonard relish being collegiate athletes. He might lift lighter weight compared to traditional athletes, but he attends regular team-building activities and practices as much as 20 hours a week. He jokes, “I’m injured,” after an overly excited fist bump during the game. 

Tonight, it’s game time again. Two broadcast hosts stand in the corner of the esports gaming room at Barnes​. ​Lights flash on their faces while they set the stage for the 8 p.m. Valorant game. Students gather around or hop onto YouTube to watch the live game. They see those players get excited, feel upset, then again rejoice after winning on the first map. 

It’s an atmosphere not unlike that at an NCAA sanctioned event. Esports as a college sport has arrived. ​“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Cheverie-Leonard remarked, ​“​to say that there’s never been a better time to get involved in esports than right now, specifically college e​sports.”