Catawba College

SALISBURY — Catawba College will add an e-sports program to its athletics department during the 2018-19 academic year.

The college is evaluating candidates for its coordinator of e-sports position that will be a part of the Office of Student Affairs, as well as planning for the location and equipment for its e-sports gaming lab.

With the addition of the e-sports program, Catawba will join more than 60 other colleges and universities offering similar programs for the world’s fastest-growing spectator sport.

It is estimated that by 2019 nearly 430 million people worldwide will tune in to watch e-sports competitors play in organized, multiplayer video games. The popularity of e-sports is tied to the accessibility of online streaming media platforms like Twitch.tv and YouTube.

Tournaments like the League of Legends World Championship, the International and the Intel Extreme Masters provide live broadcasts of competition and prize money, with play often occurring in venues like Madison Square Garden that are regularly sold out.

ESPN has broadened its sports coverage to include reporting on e-sports competitions. According to PBS.org, the e-sports industry is on target to gross nearly $1 billion by the end of 2018.

“The addition of e-sports allows us to meet our students where their interests are,” said Jared Tice, Catawba College’s dean of students. “E-sports gives Catawba another pathway for student recruitment and provides our current and future student-athletes with a new and exciting intercollegiate sport.”

Tice said Catawba’s program has the potential to thread together the academic, social and intercollegiate aspects of campus.

“E-Sports tournaments featuring Catawba students as competitors will become an on-campus spectator event with large screens broadcasting the game action while fellow students watch and cheer. Students in our communication department can collaborate with the Catawba e-sports team and its coordinator to record and broadcast the event on the social media channel, Twitch and to stream play to large screens on campus.

“Communication students may also serve as play-by-play commentators for on-campus e-sports competition, while our marketing students may help promote the Catawba e-sports team. Our sport management or business administration students can gain insights and even potential careers in establishing and managing a winning e-sports team.”

“In short, e-sports provides Catawba with a new and distinctive way to holistically engage our students across campus. It will be exciting to see the potential connections and impact evolve.”

Catawba’s new e-sports coordinator will be charged with developing schematics for an e-sports lab, establishing an e-sports team from among Catawba’s current students during the coming academic year, recruiting students to play on the team in the 2019-20 academic year and beyond, and assisting with student life programming and activities.