College esports in the United States began around 2009. Various schools began forming esports clubs to play any number of video games in collegiate tournaments. While there are thousands of schools that participate in collegiate esports competitions, in 2018, there were at least 73 college varsity esports programs, and by 2019 over 130 college varsity programs. [1] College esports is often viewed as a starting path for gamers that aspire to go professional. Although popular, companies are finding it hard to monetize collegiate esports, especially with the recent COVID-19 situation. On December 9, 2020, North American collegiate partner of Activision-Blizzard's esports system, Tespa announced that it is closing down. [2]
In 2016, the NACC became the University League of Legends (uLoL) Campus Series, run by CSL, after IvyLoL and NACL stopped functioning and many of their staff were hired as Riot Games employees to orchestrate their collegiate activities. [3] [4] [5] In the Fall of 2017, Riot Games announced that it would rebrand again as College League of Legends and switch official partners from CSL to Battlefy. [6] In May 2019, Riot Games announced the formation of the Riot Scholastic Association of America (RSAA) as the governing body for collegiate and high school esports for League of Legends. [7]
A conference created on June 10, 2020, by member institutions of the Mid-American Conference. [8]
The National Association of Collegiate Esports, otherwise known as NACE or NAC Esports, was founded in 2016. [9] As of 2021, its membership includes over 170 colligate organizations. [10] The organization offers competition in Rocket League, League of Legends, Overwatch, and other titles. [11]
The State University of New York at Canton is a public college in Canton, New York. It is part of the State University of New York. The college offers 30 bachelor's degrees, 20 associate degrees, three one-year certificate programs, and 23 online degrees.
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams.
Indiana Institute of Technology is a private university in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was founded in 1930 as Indiana Technical College by John A. Kalbfleisch, who was also the school's first president.
Sprint football is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standard American football rules. Since the 2022 season, the sport has been governed by the Collegiate Sprint Football League and the Midwest Sprint Football League.
The Valparaiso Beacons is the name of the athletic teams from Valparaiso University – often referred to as Valpo – in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. The Beacons compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level and are members of the Missouri Valley Conference in all sports except football, bowling, and men's swimming.
The Middlebury Panthers are the 31 varsity teams of Middlebury College that compete in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. The Panthers lead the NESCAC in total number of national championships, having won 42 team titles since the conference lifted its ban on NCAA play in 1994. Middlebury enjoys national success in soccer, cross country running, field hockey, men's basketball, women's hockey, skiing, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse, and fields 31 varsity NCAA teams and several competitive club teams including a sailing team (MCSC), a crew team, a water polo team, an ultimate frisbee team, and a rugby team. Since 2000, Middlebury's varsity squads have won 84 NESCAC titles. Currently, 28% of students participate in varsity sports.
The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) is an NCAA Division III men's volleyball and esports college athletic conference based in the Northeastern United States. The NECC was formerly an all-sports conference from 2008 to 2023.
The Grand View Vikings are the athletic teams that represent Grand View University, located in Des Moines, Iowa, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) since the 2015–16 academic year. The Vikings previously competed in the defunct Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) from 1989–90 to 2014–15.
Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher, and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop League of Legends and went on to develop several spin-off games and the unrelated first-person shooter game Valorant. In 2011, Riot Games was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Its publishing arm, Riot Forge, oversaw the production of League of Legends spin-offs by other developers, until its shut down in January 2024. The company worked with Fortiche to release Arcane, a television series based on the League of Legends universe.
T1 is a South Korean esports organization operated by T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor. The team that would become SKT T1 was originally founded in 2002 by StarCraft player Lim "BoxeR" Yo-hwan under the name Team Orion, which was later renamed to 4 Union in December 2003. In April 2004, South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom began sponsoring the team, officially creating the team SK Telecom T1.
Mike Avery is an American athletic director, soccer coach, and former player who played as a midfielder or forward. He is the head coach and sporting director of USL League Two club Fort Wayne FC.
The League of Legends World Championship is the annual professional League of Legends world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 44-pound (20-kilogram) Summoner's Cup, and a multi-million-dollar championship prize. In 2018, the final was watched by 99.6 million people, breaking 2017's final's viewer record. The tournament has been praised for its ceremonial performances, while receiving attention worldwide due to its dramatic and emotional nature.
Tespa is a North American collegiate esports organization headquartered in the offices of Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, California. Founded in 2012 as a collegiate gaming club at the University of Texas, Austin, Tespa expanded nationally in 2013 as an event support network for college gaming organizations. In 2014, the company announced an official partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, hosting online leagues for Hearthstone, League of Legends, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.
The League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional League of Legends esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divided into three splits, winter, spring and summer, all consisting of three weeks of round-robin tournament play, which then conclude with play-off tournaments between the top six teams. At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship. The LEC represents the highest level of League of Legends play in the EMEA.
Christopher Kjell Mykles, better known by his nickname MonteCristo, is an American esports executive and former color commentator, analyst, and organization owner.
League of Legends esports is the professional competition of the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It is developed and published by Riot Games and was first released in 2009.
The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) is a North American collegiate esports association founded in 2016. It is a nonprofit membership association organized by and on behalf of its members. With its members they are developing structure and tools needed to advance collegiate esports. Together, laying groundwork in: Eligibility, path to graduation, competition and scholarships. NACE is the largest member association of varsity esports programs in North America.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is a multiplayer online battle arena mobile game developed and published by Riot Games for Android and iOS. The free-to-play game is a modified version of the PC game League of Legends.
The Pacific Championship Series (PCS) is a professional esports league for League of Legends teams competing in the Asia-Pacific. Riot Games, the game's developer, created the league on 19 December 2019. This followed an announcement three months prior by Garena – the game's distributor in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia – that it planned to merge the League of Legends Master Series (LMS) and League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) into a single tournament jointly run with Riot Games.
The 2021 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the eleventh iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was held from 5 October to 6 November in Reykjavík, Iceland. Twenty two teams from 11 regions qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, Europe, North America, South Korea and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Southeast Asia with ten of those teams having to reach the main event via a play-in stage.