Game on! Esports takes FIU by storm

On the heels of an extraordinary inaugural year, FIU Esports celebrated National Video Games Day on Sept. 12 by introducing the 2023-2024 lineup for its varsity competitive team and launching a new team, too.

Gaming at FIU officially kicked off last year when the university committed to supporting players within the Panther community, developing an academic program that will provide students with the skills to work in the growing, lucrative industry, and even building a state-of-the-art, active-learning-focused esports arena on campus.

The new roster for FIU’s first varsity team, which plays the popular five-on-five combat game "Valorant" at the collegiate competitive level, has big shoes to fill. FIU's Valorant squad rose to No. 6 in the nation in spring 2023, winning tournaments against well-known schools in the collegiate gaming sphere, including University of Missouri, Texas A&M, and University of Tennessee Knoxville. In April, they traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the two-day Nerd Street 2023 Valorant Rendezvous, taking home first prize.

FIU Esports announced it is sponsoring a second varsity team this year to play "Rocket League," a soccer match-style game played using vehicles in place of athletes.

Committed to more than just a love for the game

FIU’s gaming community first gained foothold online during the pandemic, amassing over 2,700 users on its online Discord server, including current and prospective students as well as alumni. In response to the increasing interest – compounded by the student-led Panther Esports Club, which boasts 570 members – the university officially launched the FIU Esports department last Fall. To date, the new department has hosted over 80 student events, including the first Panther Games Expo, which featured a panel of notable gamers and was attended by 225 guests.

The esports initiative at FIU is three-pronged, placing institutional emphasis on community, academics and competition. The idea is to 1) foster a welcoming environment in which students from all majors and backgrounds can build friendships based on their shared love of gaming, and 2) prepare students for successful careers in what is projected to be a $321 billion industry by 2026, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook.

Careers in gaming aren’t limited to just designing games or playing them competitively – though many of the world’s best competitive players are earning millions between tournament prizes and sponsorships. The rise in popularity of online play and competition has opened up gaming-related job opportunities in business management, marketing, large-scale event planning and logistics, cybersecurity and much more.

And if the club’s membership and online participation are any indication, the gaming community at FIU is both thriving and thirsty for expanded opportunities.

For these reasons, Jose Toscano, senior director of Student Life & Development and advisor to the varsity teams, believes esports isn’t just some passing fad, like the Harry Potter-era Quidditch obsession that gripped FIU in the mid-2000s.

“I’ve been doing student programming for over 20 years, and if you’d asked me a few years ago, I would not have guessed that gaming would have such a meteoric rise, being able to stretch across so many industries and academic careers. But it’s true, esports is here to stay,” Toscano said at the National Video Games Day event.