It’s not "GAME OVER ", but college e-sports have been put on pause.
Students from across the Lakeland region attending Portage College this fall will not have the opportunity to flex their hand-eye coordination muscles once again as the e-sports program remains on hold.
During the 2020 – 2021 school year, the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) initiated an e-sports pilot project where students from several Alberta colleges participated in virtual gaming competitions, including a tournament. The Portage College e-sports team had one member, student Andrew Watson.
At the time, with pandemic restrictions in place that limited in-person live sporting events, the ACAC saw e-sports as a possible alternative.
“It was a time of reflection and change, at least as far as college sports were concerned,” said Mark Kosac, CEO of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. “Many ACAC members were becoming involved in virtual sports, with colleges even setting up specialized rooms for training purposes. The next step was to strike a committee and begin playing, albeit on a trial basis.”
After the pilot project had wrapped up, however, a review of the pilot program determined it wasn't a fit for the ACAC framework.
Kosac explained that when compared to traditional athletics, integrating those that use gaming consoles into college sporting programs can be very challenging as so much emphasis is placed on particular games.
“Almost all the games that are popular with players are commercially owned and licensed by large corporations, who can alter or remove them from the market at any time without notice,” he stated. “You can invest a great deal of time and energy, and suddenly, the game changes dramatically. Nobody owns basketball, volleyball, hockey, or any of the other sports we offer.”
There is still an opportunity for the e-sports idea to return to the post-secondary extra-curricular lineup, but more study will have to be done.
“We’re not shutting the door entirely on creating a division, but it’s unlikely to happen anytime in the immediate future as our primary focus is on athletics,” Kosac confirmed. “There is nothing wrong with e-sports, and if students wish to organize teams, that can be done easily enough through a college’s recreation department.”
Currently, three Alberta colleges – Keyano, NAIT, and Lethbridge – continue to have a localized e-sports program that operate outside of the ACAC framework, competing against each other in an informal league.
Portage pause
Jim Knight, the manager of the Athletics and Recreation department for Portage College, said although the idea has been tossed around, people shouldn’t expect e-sports to make a comeback "anytime soon.”
He says logistics of online service, licensing of games, and hardware compatibility issues make it a challenging option for student recreation.
“There has been some minor conversation about starting up another e-sports team, but that certainly isn’t on our radar either this year or next,” Knight stated. “One of the most pressing issues related to organizing competitions is deciding on which games to play as each institution that currently runs their e-sports program all have different games.”
