IU Gaming Club grows as e-sports popularity rises
A new partnership between the Big Ten Network and Riot Games means IU Gaming Club’s e-sports teams are participating with other Big Ten schools in BTN League of Legends, a season-long competition that kicked off Jan. 30.
This new competition is just one way IU Gaming is seeing its profile rise. As e-sports, a competition of teams playing video games with other teams, often in public venues, has skyrocketed in popularity, so have the numbers of members and events. Some of the club’s events attract as many as 300 participants.
“Because of the development of e-sports, gaming is a much bigger thing. Before, it was just a casual get together, but now there’s a culture of tournaments,” said Tyler Susong, IU Gaming Club’s communications officer and executive council member. “People are wanting tournaments, they are wanting viewing parties, all these different things that the club never considered before. So now that that’s in the realm of possibilities, the club is expanding on it.”
E-sports teams participate in several events, but the BTN’s new partnership means it will focus on Riot Games’ League of Legends, a multiple player online battle arena. When two Big Ten schools’ e-sports teams play one another, the play will be broadcast on BTN.
IU recently played Michigan State in the series. All the IU players were in one room on Bloomington’s campus, while all Michigan State players were in another on their campus. They communicated with each other through headsets. During the broadcast, both the players at each school and the screen of the game are shown in real time.
“From a production standpoint, you have to figure out what is most interesting to the audience, then come up with a way to show those while keeping focus on the central action,” said assistant professor Galen Clavio, who oversees the school’s sports media program. “So it helps to know the game. You need to be able to have that prior knowledge, and you need to be able to talk about it off the top of your head.”
League of Legends has is the biggest gaming event. In 2012, it attracted 58 million e-sports watchers. Two years later, the number had jumped 89 million. This year, the company projects up to 145 million viewers. The last World’s Event had more viewers than the MLB World Series.
‘“One of the big things that always surprises people is how big e-sports is. People think it’s a couple of kids playing together in their dorm room, and they are actually selling out stadiums and having larger venues for these national tournaments than the MLB and other professional sports do,” said Adam Sweeny, IU Gaming Club founder and faculty sponsor. “That always shocks people when we have that initial discussion, the scale of it. The collegiate level is still at its infancy. We are right at the edge where it’s really starting to become something.”
The League of Legends NCAA Tournament has a Final Four, just like a basketball tournament, with a prize at the end for the winner. These high-profile events show viewers that even something that is perceived as a living room pastime can be a spectator sport.
“Video games are still in the process of being legitimized as a competitive thing that people do,” said Nic Aguirre, lecturer in web design and interactive data. “When people see these things on TV, and see that competitors have jerseys and stuff like that, it brings something more official to it.”
In addition to League of Legends competitions, IU Gaming also stages campus events.
“We hold a twice-a-year Lan Wars event, which is an open invitation on whoever wants to come and play, with a capacity of about 300 people,” Aguirre said of the 24-hour event that counters sleep deprivation with pizza. “But it’s a good time. That’s one of our big events.”
This year’s event April 8 at Briscoe Residence Hall is the 32nd time the club has sponsored Lan Wars. Registration opens Feb. 22 and will close when the event reaches capacity. The club has more than 100 members, and events draw scores of non-members.
Clavio said he hopes to have the student production ready to broadcast this year’s Lan Wars.
“This is kind of uncharted territory,” he said. “We’ve never been in a position to broadcast this before but, because of Franklin Hall and the great facilities that we have now, we think we have an opportunity to do it.”
For some, watching others play video games, even in this highly competitive venue, sounds a bit, well, dull.
“This is a growing area of entertainment that a lot of people think it’s a joke,” Clavio said. “I think what we are finding is that a lot of people want to watch video game competitions, and I think EPSN and Fox have both done a good job of getting the ball rolling and taking it seriously.”
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