Esports are competitive, multiplayer video games played at a high level. They’ve grown in popularity as a spectator sport through online streaming.
Concord University in Athens is hosting a summer camp that aims to create more interest in its esports programs. It’s the second annual such event.
Esports are competitive, multiplayer video games played at a high level. They have grown in popularity as a spectator sport through online streaming.
Concord created its varsity esports program in 2019 as the first of its kind in the state. That came alongside the creation of an Esports Management major.
“The big thing for us is getting West Virginia on the map,” University Esports Director Austin Clay said in a 2021 interview. “It’s nice to know that even a small college with only 2,000 kids attending can get nationally recognized.”
The summer camp is set to teach local students lessons in sportsmanship, teamwork, communication and leadership through competition in video games like Fortnite, Overwatch, Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. A tournament for the recently released Overwatch 2 is also scheduled on the last day of camp.
The camp also includes speakers involved in professional esports and time for outdoor play.
A camp for younger kids aged 9 to 13 is scheduled from June 19-23, while a camp for those aged 14 to 18 is scheduled from June 28-30. The cost to attend is $225. Those interested in registering can do so onlineor email jsrose@concord.edu or akclay@concord.edu for more information.
Across the state, college campuses are taking an interest in competitive video gaming. Better known as esports, these competitions require strategic thinking, excellent hand-eye coordination, and team cooperation.
Professional level competitions have steadily grown alongside video games, but didn’t find serious financial backing until the past decade. Video game publishers, corporations, Silicon Valley giants, sponsors, and international leagues started investing in the industry as it grew in popularity. In the Internet age, esports have become a huge spectator draw with millions of viewers, and many colleges are building their own programs and varsity teams.
One such program is gaining relevance at Concord University, led by esports director Austin Clay. Concord’s esports program has grown to include multiple teams that specialize in different genres of games, from fighters that focus on individual competition like Super Smash Bros. to cooperative team shooters like Apex Legends and Call of Duty.
“My big thing a lot of people don’t realize — when people say esport, they think it’s just one game. It’s esports with an S,” Clay said.
In 2014, esports broke through to college campuses when Robert Morris University in Illinois formed the first varsity esports program and provided scholarships. Today there are almost 200 varsity esports programs around the nation.
In fall of 2019, Concord University became the first public institution in West Virginia to have a varsity and junior varsity esports program, as well as a new interdisciplinary esports management major. The major itself includes several study areas from within the esports field, from multimedia production to graphic design.
As the esports director at Concord, Clay teaches esports management classes at the school. He is responsible for sponsorships, recruiting, and facility upgrades, among other duties that are traditionally handled by a school’s athletic director.
“As collegiate esports evolve from being on a club-level to a varsity-level, you’re gonna see a rise in professionalism,” Clay said. “You’re just gonna see better, more organized, well-ran teams, which means competition is gonna be higher.”
Clay says his esports players usually earn an extra $2,000 to $4,000 in scholarship money on top of their existing academic scholarships.
“The big thing for us is getting West Virginia on the map,” Clay said. “It’s nice to know that even a small college with only 2,000 kids attending can get nationally recognized.”
Austin Clay
/
Concord University esports player Liam Fogarty
Marshall and WVU are taking a cue from Concord and getting in on the esports boom. Many gamers from around the state are enthusiastic about this, including Artem Gavrilev, former esports captain at WVU.
“I am pretty excited to see schools open up esports majors or even scholarships sometimes,” he said. “Fifteen years from now, every school is gonna have an esports wing… I think that’s the future.”
Last Thursday, WVU announced an esports minor alongside a full-fledged esports team.
Marshall University is also developing its own esports program. The Marshall Esports Club Association is a growing student organization with around 410 members.
Caleb Patrick, executive director of the Marshall Esports Club Association, says that WVU’s announcement of its esport minor is a promising sign for the future of esports in the state.
“This has fanned the flames of our motivation, and inspired us to push even harder towards creating a program that’s unrivaled in terms of community, production efforts and quality, and pure competitive prowess,” he said.
Kevin Bryant, the competitive affairs manager for Marshall esports, said that esports is an equalizing competition for different size universities.
“It doesn’t matter what size school you are, it doesn’t matter your resources or capabilities,” Bryant said. “It really is a wild wild west of who can put in that more effort and who can want it more.”
Bryant sees esports as an opportunity for West Virginia to develop competitive in-state rivalries that have been absent in traditional college sports. “It’s been a long time since West Virginia has been given its proper rivalry. That’s left WVU to go on to make sure that their top 25 was secured in football every year,” Bryant said, “They didn’t want to jeopardize it with some podunk rivalry with Marshall University.”
To Bryant, the most important part of bringing esports to West Virginia campuses is to give West Virginian students the opportunity to enter the industry.
“Forcing these students to go out of state to chase opportunities that they love kinda sucks, right? I mean, out-of-state tuition is way more than in-state tuition. It would be really nice if we can give West Virginian students an opportunity to do what they love.”
WVU announced its first big esports recruit last Thursday. Top-ranked player Noah Johnson specializes in the popular football simulation game Madden NFL. Meanwhile, Marshall has recruited three players at the rank of Grand Champion III for the school’s Rocket League team.
The Marshall Esports Club Association, along with the older Marshall Smashers Student Organization, is hosting a statewide tournament of Super Smash Bros Ultimate called “Campus Clash,” on Nov. 13. Next semester, Campus Clash will be hosted by WVU.
For people with disabilities, video games can help them feel more included and accepted in social circles.
“In a video game, you don’t know that I have a disability,” Mark Barlet, the founder of The AbleGamers Charity in Kearneysville, Jefferson County, explained. But not everyone with a disability can play video games with a traditional controller.
Founded in 2004, AbleGamers is an organization that helps people with disabilities play video games with specially made video game controllers.
“I’ve seen where a profoundly disabled person mentions that they play a game and all the sudden, while that person was being completely ignored in a crowd, the person next to them says, ‘I play that game too!’ and all of a sudden, they’re friends,” Barlet said.
Take the game system Xbox One, for example. A traditional controller is held with both hands, and your thumbs and pointer fingers are used to make the character or object on the screen move and interact.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
AbleGamers’ employee Greg Haynes uses an Xbox One adaptive controller to play a game called Rocket League.
An adaptive controller, allows someone who can’t hold a traditional controller to navigate a video game in a way that’s comfortable for them. The Xbox One adaptive controller, looks like a white, plastic pad with large black buttons built into the device, and outlets along its side to connect it with other external buttons.
“One thing that people don’t think of when they hold a traditional controller is that about 60 percent of your digits are used just to hold the controller,” AbleGamers employee Greg Haynes said. “And for some players with disabilities, based on a number of things, that may not be a reality. So, something like the Xbox adaptive controller, [it] allows you to essentially take the controller, flatten it down, and have it be on a surface, so that you have access to a potential layout of buttons.”
AbleGamers has only six employees. Four are full-time, two are part-time, and then there are a few volunteers. But they work with game developers and engineers to develop these specialized controllers. In some cases, they help people get more complex devices that respond to eye movements, foot taps, breath or finger taps. These kinds of controllers aren’t sold in stores.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This adaptive controller called the Adroit Switchblade was created by AbleGamers and Evil Controllers. It can be used with an Xbox.
Some of the devices are made in-house at AbleGamers, but most are either purchased or made elsewhere.
In 2018, AbleGamers said they helped more than 1,400 people with disabilities get back into or start gaming. About 8 percent of those people required intricate, specially made controllers.
Demand for these controllers is high, though, and AbleGamers said they’re only able to help about 30 percent of the requests that come in at any given time.
But some experts are concerned that relying on video games for social interactions (or technology in general) could be more negative than positive.
“You can’t replace [in-person] social interaction,” Shepherd University associate professor of psychology Heidi Dobish said.
Dobish specializes in child, adolescent development and lifespan social psychology.
“Those that are spending a lot of time on Facebook, research is showing that they tend to have lower self-esteem, because we are seeing an increase in anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation; those sorts of things.”
Dobish said access to video games for folks with disabilities can help a person feel empowered and create inclusion, but she cautions this shouldn’t replace in-person interactions – especially for young people.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This adaptive controller made for the Xbox One game system was modeled after AbleGamers’ Adroit Switchblade adaptive controller.
Inclusive socialization is one of the main benefits of video games for Jane Timmons-Mitchell, though, a clinical psychologist and senior research associate at the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
She said video games, especially those with educational or social components, can be a great thing for children and adults. In the case of someone with a disability, playing video games with others can help them feel connected.
“One of the things that is pretty well established is that those can really increase cooperation and social skills,” Timmons-Mitchell said.
Both Dobish and Timmons-Mitchell agree finding balance is key, though, and that encouraging in-person social interactions and time spent outside, away from screens, is hugely beneficial to a person’s mental and physical health – for those with disabilities and for those without.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This life size power armor from the Fallout video games hangs out here in one of the hallways at the AbleGamers headquarters in Kearneysville, W.Va.
AbleGamers founder Barlet agrees that moderation and monitoring video game consumption is good. But he said he believes there is still great power through video games – that they can create an avenue where everyone is on the same playing field.
“That’s the power of this world that we live in now – that I don’t have to be defined by my race, my creed, my LGBT status, [or] my disability. We have those shared spaces, we have those connections,” he said.
From his perspective, getting to play video games gives people the chance to run, jump, create and be anyone they want to be.
The West Virginia Lottery says the first official tax week of legal sports betting in the state will yield around $29,000 in tax revenue.
Acting Lottery Director Doug Buffington’s office said in a news release that the first three days of operation at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races showed taxable revenue of more than $295,000.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the West Virginia Gaming and Racing Association president, John Cavacini, says even more bets are expected to be placed this weekend when professional football season starts.
“Widely available legalized sports betting means big money for sports leagues like the NFL,” said Sara Slane, of the American Gaming Association.
Cavacini says Hollywood Casino was the first to begin legal sports betting. He says other venues will follow suit this month.
He says revenues will likely increase when mobile betting apps are up and running.
West Virginia has an advantage in attracting people across state lines to place bets because neighboring states aren’t taking up the issue, and there’s a significantly higher tax in Pennsylvania, Cavacini said.
“That’s what happened when we introduced slots and table games, because none of the other states had it,” Cavacini said. “For many years, we benefited from that.”
He said at some point neighboring states will likely legalize sports betting.
“But for now, we have a free run at it,” Cavacini said.
As lawmakers try to find ways to deal with the state’s financial problems, the House Finance Committee discussed a bill that could put $9 million back in the budget. The bill originating in the House’s Finance Committee would end the Racetrack Modernization Fund.
The fund was created in 2011 to supplement the cost of upgrading video lottery terminals – or digital slot machines and other lottery games. There are four racetrack casinos in the state – Mardi Gras in Cross Lanes, Mountaineer in Chester, Wheeling Island in Wheeling, and Hollywood in Charles Town.
Three of those casinos are in border areas and bring in out-of-state gamblers who contribute to West Virginia’s overall income. But in the mid-2000s, surrounding states began building casinos of their own. The fund was seen as a way to keep West Virginia’s gaming facilities more competitive.
Each year, lawmakers set aside $9 million in the Racetrack Modernization Fund for the upgrades, and any unused money rolls over from year-to-year. Currently, there’s $7.5 million leftover from last year. But the fund itself is only supposed to last until 2020. The House Finance Committee’s bill would end the fund three years early and re-appropriate the money to general revenue.
Some delegates in the Northern and Eastern Panhandles, however, had concerns about ending the fund, including Democratic Delegate Jason Barrett, of Berkeley County, who questioned Louis Southworth, an attorney representing the West Virginia Racing Association
“What kind of decrease in revenue have these casinos seen with this increased competition?” Barrett asked.
“I believe that in some of the years the racetracks were contributing around $450 million to the state,” Southworth said, “Last year, it was $367 million, so there’s been a decline, but at least the tracks feel that the fund has helped them keep that level up, and it would’ve been a lot worse if they hadn’t had it.”
“Would you agree that a lot of the players at these casinos are from out of state and having up-to-date games on these slot machines are critical to bringing those people in?” Barrett asked.
“No question,” Southworth answered, “It’s probably 80 to 90 percent from out-of-state, and the competition is fierce.”
Republican Delegate Erikka Storch, of Ohio County, also opposed the bill. She says the casino in her area is a huge contributor to her community, and losing the fund could make them less viable.
“If the racetrack doesn’t have the ability of that capital to upgrade their machines, will they have to lay off people? Will they have to, you know, direct their resources in other ways to maintain a competitive advantage? Will they be able to be a good player in the community as they have been? You know, they support a lot of nonprofits, they host a lot of things, they’re a major donor to a lot of things; they give back to the community a lot,” Storch explained, “Will they be able to do that? Or will they have to redirect those funds toward their capital necessities?”
Storch says she and some of her colleagues may consider offering an amendment on the floor.
House Finance Chair Eric Nelson, of Kanawha County, says he’s sympathetic to his colleagues’ concerns, but points out it’s additional revenue that can help balance the state’s budget deficit.
“I’ve got a casino, or gaming facility right in my backyard; fully aware of that,” Nelson said, “It is one of the balancing acts, you know. The priority of giving certain people or industries tax credits versus balancing the budget and doing other things like cuts and other revenue measures.”
The House Finance Committee did vote to move the bill to the full House, but on a close roll call vote of 14 to 11.
Profits at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort have plummeted to less than half their 2014 levels.
Reno, Nevada-based Eldorado Resorts Inc., which owns the New Cumberland casino, announced their quarterly earnings Thursday.
The company says Mountaineer’s adjusted earnings from July 1 through Sept. 30 were $4 million. Adjusted earnings for the same quarter in 2015 were $6.4 million last year and $9.1 million in 2014.
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register reports West Virginia casinos have watched profits slide as new facilities opened in Pennsylvania and Ohio over the past decade, especially the Rivers Casino in downtown Pittsburgh and The Meadows Racetrack and Casino near Washington, Pennsylvania.
Company officials said the county’s July 2015 indoor smoking ban has also hurt business.
Mountaineer remains Hancock County’s largest employer.
