New College Competitors: As esports gains popularity, SUNY Morrisville jumps on board

Esports at Morrisville moved from novice to pro level in the fall of 2019, when Spencer Herring (F1SH), an information technology: network administration student, became president of the Morrisville Competitive Gaming (MCG) club. Herring’s first order of business was to help elevate esports from casual interest to serious competition.

“When I first joined (MCG), it was just a club where kids would come and play games, so I started a Smash team and have tried to blossom it into a legit esports program,” said Herring, a passionate Nintendo Super Smash Brothers Ultimate player.

Herring pushed to create a large team of players on campus and reached out to peers from other institutions to gauge their interest in competing. His vision meshed with that of MCG co-advisors Angela Rhodes and Jamal Verity, both avid and longtime gamers who continuously advocated for esports through various avenues on campus.

Working together, the group successfully organized and hosted the club’s first esports scrimmage last fall, squaring off against Bryant & Stratton College (Buffalo, New York).

SUNY Morrisville has seen the value in esports and gaming, recently announcing a minor in game programming open to students in any bachelor’s degree program. Plans also are underway to renovate a Charlton Hall lecture hall into a multifunctional space to be used as both a classroom and an esports arena by next fall.

“Our challenge now is for our esports program to be fully recognized by administration as an official team,” said Verity, assistant professor in the Computer Information Technology (CIT) Department.

The esports team advanced a level closer to that goal last spring, being awarded grant money to purchase official team jerseys and Alienware pro gaming equipment.

“When we unboxed those jerseys at the beginning of the spring semester, the students’ faces just lit up and they were definitely excited to be recognized as college competitors,” said Rhodes, the college’s Systems & Electronic Resources librarian.

But shortly thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic forced colleges everywhere to abruptly transition to remote learning and brought live, in-person sports at all levels to a sudden halt.

As SUNY System Administration began developing ways to bolster its response to the pandemic, it leaned on the virtual capabilities of esports. In April they announced a three-week, systemwide SUNY Chancellor Esports Challenge to help support student emergency funds.

“All of the sudden, the whole esports scene erupted and some campuses, including ours, that didn’t appear to outwardly have much of an esports scene came out of the woodwork to compete on a SUNY-wide scale,” Rhodes said. “It’s never been done before, and now there’s this whole community that I’m in communication with.”

The Challenge attracted 46 colleges and nearly 500 student participants. Following its success, SUNY partnered with the tournament formation and management platform, LeagueSpot, to organize two more events: a Summer Esports Tournament held throughout August and a six-week SUNY Fall Esports League during the fall semester.

“When the pandemic came about, it caused us to pause our scrimmages,” Verity said. “Then the SUNY Esports League allowed us to enroll our student-athletes into competition again, and it was a blessing.”

Morrisville’s gamers were stoked to hear the news.

“A tournament against all other SUNY colleges? I absolutely love it,” said Hunter Snyder (ItsOffTheWall), a computer information systems major.

Snyder served as captain for the Fortnight 2v2 team competition during the fall league, pairing with automotive technology major Evan Schaaf (Jerjoeev3) and earning a first-round bye in the playoffs.

“This was a way for people to connect and play together and have fun,” Snyder said.

Snyder’s team members share those sentiments, especially this year, as esports tournaments have offered much more than just friendly competition.

“It’s a refresher,” said Ricardo Gibson (Shiruya/SageLeader), who competed in Smite 1v1 during the fall league. “It got people out of their depressed state from this pandemic and helps put people in good spirits. They are not able to come together face-to-face, but they are able to communicate.”

Gibson, an information technology: application software development major and vice president of MCG, has formed bonds during this time of isolation.

“During this competition, I’m making a lot of friends. Even opponents are now ‘frenemies,’” he said.

“I had a lot of fun and met a lot of nice people,” added Herring, who competed in all three SUNY tournaments.

The team hopes to see esports continue its rapid progress at both the college and system level.

“A hope of mine, and Jamal’s, is that eventually this will evolve from a league into an NCAA-level athletics competition — Something where we can recruit, give out scholarships and elevate our players,” Rhodes said.