The Csudh eSports Association hosted a tournament Feb. 22. Photo by Ulises Rodriguez.
By Ulises Rodriguez, Staff Reporter
Alright, first of all, you’re probably asking yourself, “what in the blueberry yum yum is eSports.” Well, esports is a new form of athletic competition, except its competition through video games that you could essentially say it first started in 1972, but really took off in the 2000’s and has become a million-dollar industry. I’m sure most of you have played at least one video game that is commonly played at eSports competitions.
If you haven’t, you need to get on board, because eSports is taking the nation by surprise. eSports are no longer a niche thing. There are professional eSports teams and athletes out there, making the same income as professional athletes from traditional sports such as Ninja and FaZe Clan.
I can guarantee that most of you didn’t even know that we had an eSports association here on campus that faces off against other schools in competition. Now here is some food for thought: if our very own school is unable to report on our eSports team like other campuses what makes you think other publications will?
If you do just a quick search through our CSUDH site or our Bulletin news website, there are only four mentions of esports. I’m sorry to my advisor and my peers with The Bulletin but sometimes we have to take the L and learn to live with that. Oh yes, I’m that ugly duckling who pointed out a flaw with the newspaper I’m writing for.
The reality is, the same thing is happening with big news outlets such as the LA Times, CNN, NBC, or Fox. If you go to any news site, there is a strong possibility it will not have an eSports tab. The only mainstream site that writes heavily and reports on eSports events and news is ESPN. Sure, they are the only cable outlet that televises eSports events but still, I applaud the folks in Bristol, Connecticut for embracing this rapidly growing sport.
Who knows how massive eSports will become in the next 10 to 20 years. Maybe our campus will join those universities that offer scholarships for eSports athletes and label our esports association as an intercollegiate sport. Now that would be breaking the internet and no I’m not talking about Kim Kardashian’s booty.
“I think they’re just not there yet and that’s ok,” Ruben Caputo, advisor to the eSports association on campus, said. “I think the time is going to show that eSports is going to make a disruption into the community and I think with more academic backing we will get there.”
The truth is simple: many are still afraid to venture into this new craze. If you think about it, 15 years ago no one would ever think that video games would lead to the creation of something big.
Now the reason why there is this fear of backing esports is because of the negative stigma that has been present all these years. From the old folks saying video games rot brains, to overprotective mothers saying video games cause psychological issues, even our “amazing” liar in Chief saying they cause mass shootings; we gotta learn to move from that because trust me my brain might be rotting but it’s not because of video games. Hint: its names are Patron and Jose Cuervo.
We have to get past the negative stigma and move forward to push eSports more on campuses. CSUDH has a golden opportunity to serve our students by creating programs that will help eSports athletes as well as anyone thinking of careers in video game design and management. It’s time we jump onto the full throttle of eSports and ride it till the end, before other CSUS (like the one in Los Angeles whose name I won’t even print because they’re supposedly our arch-rival and we’re supposed to detest them) jump on board first and leave Toro Nation on the outside looking in.
