“Overwatch 2” played in the esports gaming lab. Photo by Reece Nations.
By A.J. Salazar
In January 2023, Texas Tech University established the eSports Competition and Streaming Lab located on the first floor of the College of Media & Communication.
Braxton Parrott, a Texas Tech Information Technology alumnus and current student assistant at CoMC, said what was once an abandoned call center has now transformed into a university-level student organization open to both students and athletes of the Texas Tech Esports Association.
“I know that [the eSports Competition and Streaming Lab] used to be a telecoms room that wasn’t used,” Parrott said. “Whoever was in charge was like ‘OK, we can turn this into something that’ll get people to want to come to the college,’ and also work as an active part of the culture.”
Robert Peaslee, associate creative media industries professor and associate dean of the Honors College, said that in addition to discussing the lab’s establishment also elaborated on its effects on both the student body and members of the Tech Esports Association.
“Its primary benefit has been obviously to the esports team,” Peaslee said. “For much of its history, the team did not have a dedicated space for that, and even though they were winning national championships, they were doing this out of their dorm rooms.”
Peaslee also said that in addition to assisting the competitive side of esports, the lab provides students the opportunity to experience the infrastructure by allowing the use of Twitch and other social media to gain an understanding of the promotion and advertisement of the industry.
Looking into the eSports Lab on the first floor of CoMC. Photo by A.J. Salazar.
“There’s the folks who work with esports in a promotional way,” Peaslee said. “This gives them the space to have a base of operations to do Twitch streams, social media, whatever it might be that either supports individual athletes or the team in general.”
In light of the absence of an esports training program, the lab instead provides students and athletes with the opportunity to compete, practice, and gain knowledge of the industry should they desire to pursue a career in this field.
“We might not really be training esports athletes, here in our college, but we are certainly training people to go into the esports industry more generally,” Peaslee added.
Following the increasing popularity of esports, universities around the country are adopting programs and curricula centered on video games to advance education on technology and assist in community building. School-sponsored leagues have fostered friendships and strengthened teamwork and communication skills.
Cybbi Barton, an instructor of digital gaming culture at CoMC, is the director of eSports Events and Outreach and joined the JCMI department in 2023. In exploring the career points that gaming provides, Barton said gaming can lead to the pursuit of careers within the fields of marketing, commentary, and journalism.
“The impacts are immeasurable almost at this point,” Barton said. “There’s science and data that supports [the amplified use of] hand-eye coordination [when competing or playing videogames in general]. A lot of physical components [are involved] to play a video game and to perfect that craft.”
Parrott also said that one of the key benefits of the lab is that it provides students the space to meet others with the same interests and it provides its occupants with the tools necessary to express that interest.
Those who wish to pursue a career in esports can also look forward to lucrative prizes that competitions and leagues offer as well. Billy Studholme of Esports Insider writes that prize winnings can reach up to $425,000 while salary earnings can range from $20,000 to $40,000 per month.
Teammates lock in to push the payload. Photo by Reece Nations.
The generational shift in which young adults look up to the professional athletes of esports the same way others look up to the athletes of other professionals is due in part not only to the knowledge, relationship building, and financial rewards that esports provides. Peaslee said students can aspire to excel in esports just as others might dream of more mainstream sports such as football — which helps to add to the gaming industry’s prominence.
Taking into account how the benefits of esports have impacted students, athletes, and the sports industry in general, Peaslee said there is no evidence of the industry fading into obscurity anytime soon.
“The genie’s out of the bottle,” Peaslee said. “The only thing that’s going to change is that [esports are] going to get more and more mainstreamed.”
About Reece Nations
