Kean to Launch Competitive Esports Program

By Dorian Alerte | Published by April 20, 2021

When Kean students return to campus in Fall 2021, they can look forward to a new addition to the Kean athletics roster: Esports.

 

Esports has grown into a major industry in the gaming world. Esports is a type of competitive video game playing that has become increasingly popular.

The co-ed esports team will be the 15th Kean Athletics program and will compete against other universities as a part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). The ECAC holds competitions during the academic year and games played include Madden, FIFA, Fortnite, Overwatch, Rocket League, and many others.

“I think right now for us, the esports move is a move that was going to be a progressive move,” director of athletics Kelly Williams said. “The rest of the country is really starting to pay attention to it from a competitive point-of-view. We wanted to be involved in that uptick and that success and the opportunities that it gives student athletes to compete on a competitive level.”

The addition of the esports team comes as esports viewership is on the rise across the world. According to Business Insider, current viewership is projected to rise from 454 million viewers in 2019 to 646 million viewers in 2023.

Esports are not new to Kean. The Kean Esports club was started on campus in the Spring 2020 semester and became official in the Fall 2020 semester.

“The club was started by our club president Alexander Garcia,” Kean esports club secretary Amy Yang said. “He looked at the clubs and thought ‘there’s no esports club here, I can start something new.’”

The club, as well as the competitive program are looking forward to a positive relationship that will help students get the opportunity to compete, as well as learn from each other.

“I am more than open and more than willing to see how we can work together,” Williams said. “We’re completely open to working with the esports club and some of the things that have already been established.”

One of the main advantages of the esports program is that the university is now listed in a conference, which now enables students to compete with other universities consistently. 

“From an ECAC point-of-view, we’re in a conference,” Williams said. “There’s going to be guidelines and bylaws that we are going to have to cover, which changes the context of what we’re doing, but it also puts us in a unique situation where we have the competitive gaming days and a particular system to follow… and give our students the opportunity to compete under a conference situation.”

Students will have the opportunity to practice and compete in the new esports arena that is being built on the second floor of the Green Lane Academic Building. According to a press release, the area will be a 2,612 square foot space, equipped with a large screen for competitions, an area for spectators, and state-of-the-art gaming computers and consoles, including Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5 and Xbox.

The esports program will also take advantage of the streaming platform, Twitch, to stream competitions and events. Competitions in the fall will also be held virtually against other schools.

Both the Kean esports club and the esports program are looking forward to the new opportunity that presents itself in the Fall 2021 semester. The team is actively recruiting members.

“We definitely want to collaborate,” Yang said. “The best thing that can happen is that we get together and this works out. We’ll hopefully make this into something state-wide, like tournaments and leagues.”

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