West Plains, MO. – E-Sports will find a new home on the campus of Missouri State University, West Plains. Ozark Radio News spoke to Alex Pinnon, who is organizing and forming this new program.
If you’re unsure of what E-Sports are, or how big the numbers are that involve it, listen to our interview included below:
Transcript:
Dan Williams:
This is Dan here with Ozark Radio News. And I’m here talking to Alex Pinnon about the recent establishment of an esports program MSU West Plains. Alex, can you tell us just a little bit more about this?
Alex Pinnon:
Yes. Esports is probably considered the fastest growing sport globally, in the last few years has reached an over $1 billion industry, and there have been close to 500 million viewers worldwide. And so this has become a very attractive idea to many students who are looking for a way to get involved in the university, but also find opportunities to increase their education as they move forward and their financial aid, as they move forward. A lot of people don’t realize that major four year institutions are starting to offer full ride scholarships for students coming out of two year universities. So our program will give students an opportunity to be seen on a national stage. They will be streamed nationally by the NJCAAE. And this will give them opportunities to be recruited. And even on campus, we’ll have opportunities for students to receive scholarships, to play on the various teams.
Alex Pinnon:
And so some people may be wondering, “What is esports?” And so esports, just very simply, is competitive gaming. And I can understand sometimes some of the reservations of students playing video games. I grew up playing video games and I remember people saying sometimes it’s a waste or whatever it may be, but I think that esports, much like any other sport, is a competition of the mind. It is not just going to be students sitting around playing games. Rather, we are going to be fostering leadership skills, communication skills. Like I said, oftentimes it’s a battle of the minds. Understanding strategy, trying to understand what your teammates are thinking as they do it. This is something that, again, much like other sports, unites players together, and we get to see the best of the best, oftentimes competing through strategy and through understanding of the sport itself.
Alex Pinnon:
And so we will be operating underneath of the NJCAAE guidelines and they will be sponsoring several titles that students can join. So we will have titles like Rocket League, Madden Football, NBA 2K, FIFA, Valorant Overwatch, Super Smash Brothers, and a variety of Call of Duty titles as well. And so this will give students a chance to play on multiple rosters, play with multiple teammates. And we will compete against schools across the nation. These tournaments may offer cash prizes. In the professional world, these cash prizes can range into the millions of dollars. At the collegiate level, it probably won’t be as much as that, but there will still be opportunities to have those cash prizes.
Dan Williams:
Now, I know there’s a lot of stigma to this type of thing. And even people who are listening right now may not necessarily be convinced of the validity of this kind of sport. But I mean, even in just my experience after watching this kind of thing grow years ago, there was a big tournament set up for a certain game series we talked about, and this was in the early years of esports, there was a prize that essentially equivocated to the winning team getting $1 million for each member that managed to win this world series. And this was displayed on ESPN. It got millions of viewers worldwide. And this, as an industry, just is proving to expand further past what anyone’s expectations were. And it may seem like that everybody’s just sitting around playing games, but I’ve personally seen, and even personally experienced, how much strategy and organization and teamwork is really required to go into these sessions. It’s almost the same as what it would be to actually play a physical sport. You’ve got to take the time to really figure out your steps. And I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of this too, haven’t you?
Alex Pinnon:
Yeah, absolutely. Like to say, to agree with you there, I mean, there have been some of these championship that had more viewers than the NBA Finals. And to see what some of these students can do, some of these athletes can do inside of this digital realm, I think will surprise a lot of people. And again, we’re going to have venues where people can watch players live, but again, we’ll also have a venue that them to be streamed nationally. And I think there’s so much focus on this right now that we would hate to fall behind the curve as universities and institutions across the nation, again, are opening up these programs, attracting students. Where major schools like USC, Cornell, whether it be Ivy League or major state schools are all offering these grand opportunities. And with this becomes a larger industry behind it.
Alex Pinnon:
So there will be opportunities in the future for our university to offer degrees and certificates around communications, sports casting. There will be a variety of jobs that pop up around this sport. And so students will have an opportunity, not just to possibly bring in money and scholarships, but to find long lasting careers that can be part of this sport, but also affect other parts of the industry
Dan Williams:
That pretty well covers most of it. I don’t think that I personally got any doubts as to whether or not this type of industry will have success going forward. But I’m curious though, stepping forward yourself, what kind of projects will you and your team be focusing on at first? I know you’ve already got a bit of a list of games that you have lined up, but are there any programs that you’re eyeing at or tournaments or even specific games that you want to focus on, especially?
Alex Pinnon:
Well, all that will depend on student interest. I think right now the largest interest is in Super Smash Brothers, Rocket League, and some of the Call of Duty titles. What we are starting to establish, now we are bringing in students to interview with me. We are forming our team this semester. And then by fall, this coming semester, we will be competing in tournaments sponsored by the NJCAAE. They’ll have regular seasons, we’ll have playoffs, we’ll have championships. And all of that, again, will start in the fall. And so parents and community members will be more than welcome to watch from their homes or to watch in person some of the bigger championship games that we have.
Dan Williams:
Now, this organization that you’re going to be operating through for your guidelines and specific game lists and stuff, how would they find more information about this if they wanted to try to look up information about that organization or even to participate in this program?
Alex Pinnon:
If we want to get more information about the NJCAAE, you can simply go to their website, Google the program, they will pop up what their rules are, their history, what kinds of tournaments they sponsor. And then students and perspective students, maybe there are some people out there thinking about where they’d want to go for college in the future, they can contact me. They can call me at (417) 255-7965, or they can email APinnon@MissouriState.edu.
Dan Williams:
Thank you very much for talking with us, Alex. Before we go ahead and cut out of here. Are there any other topics you’d like to cover or any shout outs you’d like to share with anyone?
Alex Pinnon:
Absolutely. Again, I think sometimes there’s a stigma on people who play games, who play video games. And I do want to make sure that parents out there understand that there will be codes of conduct. There are academic standards that students have to meet. These students will have to be advised by a faculty advisor who will make sure that they are staying on top of their academic work while they are also participating in this sport.
Dan Williams:
Well, thank you very much for your time, Alex. This was fantastic. And I’m sincerely looking forward to your success here.
