Canadian esports programs staying ahead of the esports industry
Canadian Colleges ahead of the curve in Esports education
By Justin Chan
Photo courtesy Lambton College
The Gaming arena at Lambton College.
With the rapid rise of Esports in mainstream media, the United States’ collegiate Esports scene has exploded, as over 100 universities in the United States have their own Esports teams competing in leagues for various different video games. However, Canadian colleges have been leading in their own way, as the Esports industry struggles to find people with the right skills to support the booming industry behind the scenes.
Esports has always been a passion for Ryan Hiebert, who has followed the rising phenomenon for some years. Currently, Hiebert is a player on the Overwatch varsity Esports team for Lambton College, as well as a student in Lambton’s new full time Esports Entrepreneurship & Administration program.
Hiebert was formerly a student at Mohawk College’s Journalism program, but the 2017 Ontario-wide college strike pushed him to find a new path, as he decided to pursue his passion for video games and Esports.
“Lambton College has been a really different experience for me,” says Hiebert, recounting his experience so far, part way through his first semester of the Esports program. “In spite of how new this program is, we have access to the [Esports] arena, our gaming PC lounge, at almost all hours of the day so we can practice our game of choice.”
The Esports Entrepreneurship & Administration program at Lambton College is a brand new program being offered for the first time in September of 2018, as the college welcomed over 60 students to the college for Esports.
The program draws from aspects of the Sport Management programs also offered at Lambton college, and aims to offer students “tangible experience that can be directly translated into the [Esports] industry.” says Matt Hutchinson, coordinator of the Esports program at Lambton College.
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Photo courtesy Lambton College
Matt Hutchinson, Lambton College Esport Entrepreneurship & Administration Program Coordinator
Being the first College in Ontario to offer an Esports program of this sort, Hutchinson described the complicated process that took place for the Esports program to be approved, drawing on contacts from the Esports industry, and crafting a program that will fulfill the skill sets that are important to have in the rising Esports industry.
“The biggest skepticism that we faced early on in developing this program was that it wasn’t just going to be “a gaming program”. That’s why we developed the Esports entrepreneurship program, we partnered with Twitch, Major League Gaming. In hopes of graduates having the required skills to flourish in the industry after graduation.”
While Lambton College is one of the first colleges to offer an Esports program, it also has its own gaming teams, which receive support from the college much like other varsity sports teams such as Basketball.
In spite of the program still being in its first year, Hiebert states that the college has been “incredibly accommodating ... a friend and I got to go and compete at the Canada Cup, and most of the expenses were covered by the school, and we have people from Twitch coming in pretty soon to teach us a bit about how to livestream.”
Hutchinson describes that one of the major assignments for students in the Esports program, is to host a cross-city Esports event with one of the only other Colleges in Ontario that also offer an Esports Administration and Entrepreneurship program, St. Clair College.
“St. Clair has been running Esports events for 13 years. It’s been a long time here at the college, but it really took off in 2016 with the first Saints gaming live event we held, and the launch of the varsity program shortly after.” says St. Clair College’s Esports director, Shaun Byrne. “One of the issues for the Esports environment is that they’re having a big problem finding talent for content creation, not even at the competitive level.”
With this in mind, January of 2019 will mark St. Clair College’s first intake of students for their Esports administration and entrepreneurship program, which aims to teach the students a combination of business and media broadcast skills specifically tailored to the Esports industry.
As Byrne explains St. Clair’s Esports program, he specifically wanted to focus on the college’s partnership with Major League Gaming (MLG), and the problems faced by the competitive gaming industry.
“Essentially they don’t know where to find talent. Attempt to solve that problem by training students at the college to fill the skill gaps we see in ports right now, just because the industry is growing so fast, and without a program such as this in place, people are finding it hard to scout talent to staff those organizations with a proper skillset.”
St. Clair College currently has 2 Esports facilities on campus, they have an open gaming lab with 30 high end gaming PCS, open to any student on campus, which is used for tryouts.
Last year they built a brand new varsity training facility called the Nest, which has 12 high end gaming PCs in it, multiple console setups and a permanent livestream setup.
The Varsity players are always practicing and competing in there.
For the new academic program, will be renovating a computer lab and turning it into an Esports classroom. That will help with their media content creation skills. Used for marketing and management classes for Esports.
Last year we had 32 students on scholarships competing for the school, this year we’re up to 36 with the addition of Fortnite.
“It’s only a matter of time before Canada catches up, for the US, there’s always been this sort of bigger enthusiasm for sports in the US, and they’re sort of bringing it over into Esports. Here in Canada our athletics programs are usually a little weaker, and our scene isn’t put on such a high pedestal as the US.
So while they have a lot more experience with varsity sports side of things, America comes short in terms of programs for Esports.