The Electronic Gaming Federation, the national governing body for formalized collegiate D-I esports and high school level leagues, today announced their most comprehensive lineup for both games and participating schools in the organizations three year history. The season three of EGF will have participation from over 100 teams representing 60 colleges and universities from across the country, as well as full participation from both the MAAC and BIG EAST Conferences returning. EGF will run leagues for Rocket League, Overwatch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and FIFA 21 as well as adding CS:GO and Chess to their growing list of supported titles. Play begins on Friday October 8 with live streams being broadcast on twitch.tv/officialegf..
“Our goal with season three was to continue to bring uniformity, consistency and a continued raised quality of play to EGF events, and we see by the increased number of schools, increased games and expanded and inclusive format we can say mission accomplished,” said Tyler Schrodt Founder of the Electronic Gaming Federation. “Most importantly this fall will set the tone for aggressive and calculated expansion into the winter and spring, with our goal of having the largest, most comprehensive Division I esports competition in place well ahead of our five year goal.”
In addition, the organization will also begin its expansive high school program, EGFH, with 600 teams concluding with a National Championship to be played in-person at ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in June.
New schools for the fall include: Iona College, Bowling Green State University, University of Montana, University of South Alabama, and Washington State University for this fall, with over 100 schools expected to compete in EGF events this coming spring as well.
The Electronic Gaming Federation, the national governing body for formalized collegiate D-I esports and high school level leagues, will host a series of panels on topics in collegiate esports ranging from team management to mental health beginning on February 3rd for member colleges and universities across the country to engage in information sharing to their esports and gaming communities. The event is open to all faculty, coaches and students as a way to bring together the fluid and fast rising world of gaming across college campuses. The event is free and will be streamed on twitch.tv/officialEGF each Wednesday at 2PM ET.
“The esports and gaming communities across the country continue to grow, but the market, as happens with many startup industries, can be very siloed and fractured, our goal is to bring together like minded individuals with one purpose; to share best practices and learn from each other,” said EGF CEO Eric Johnson. “For esports to continue to grow holistically, we need consistency and we believe this is a great next step.”
EGF Leads is one of the first major projects initiated by the recently elected EGFC Board of Governors under the leadership of Michele King (William & Mary) and Courtney James (DePaul University). “I am excited to see how EGF Leads allows students to learn to lead from industry leaders and staff professionals at EGF Member Institutions. EGF has established itself as an industry leader when it comes to competitive play; and the expansion of EGF Leads will allow the Federation to be a industry leader when it comes to co-curricular leadership development for students involved in the Esports & gaming community.” – Courtney James, Director of Student Involvement & Esports, DePaul University
The goal of this series of panels and educational sessions will be to have students learn from peers, industry leaders and member institution staff and faculty about topics pertaining to leadership, communication and more.
“EGF’s strength is in its leadership and active participation of its member institutions. What better way to enable our students to grow and to develop than to offer EGF Leads–a weekly panel discussion on topics relevant to the esports ecosystem. We believe in integrity and transparency, so we want all esports community members to join in the discussion as we learn from schools across the country and industry leaders. I’m excited to be part of an organization that encompasses what it means to be a part of the esports community from the competitive and industrial side to the academic rigors of creating the esports landscape.” –Michele King, Ph.D., Director of Esports at William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
February 3rd: Marketing Your Team & Esports Program
February 10th: Mental Health & Esports
February 17th: Content Creation for Live Streams
February 24th: Team Management as a Student Captain
March 3rd: Prioritizing Inclusivity in Your Esports Community
March 10th: Introduction to OBS & Esports Production
March 17th: Shoutcasting 101
March 24th: Facilitating Community Meetings
March 31st: Build a PC Demo
EGF will start the second half of EGFC Season 2 on February 1st with over 40 schools, and will have conference and national championships starting in March, 2021 across a wide range of games.
The Entain Foundation US and EPIC Risk Management today announced the launch of a player education initiative with colleges around the nation to deliver a series of gaming awareness educational sessions. The Entain Foundation US is funded by Entain plc, the global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator which jointly owns and provides the technology to BetMGM in the United States.
The joint initiative will be focused on education and awareness and the need to keep betting safe as sports betting and gaming continues to expand across more states, with New York most recently expressing interest. More than 40 colleges in the U.S. will initially take part in the nationwide educational initiative, including the Mid-American Conference, Fordham University in New York City and Monmouth University in New Jersey.
Entain Foundation US and EPIC plan to work together to add new colleges to the program throughout 2021. Those colleges already participating include the University of Akron, Eastern Illinois University, Harvard University, Northern Illinois University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), University of Ohio, University of Oregon, Seton Hall University and the University of Utah.
EPIC and Entain Foundation US launched the partnership and program in March 2020. Overall, the program is fully funded by the Entain Foundation US and is part of Entain’s pledge to invest $132 million over five years towards responsible gaming initiatives and to support people and communities around the world where it operates.
To date, EPIC Risk Management and the Entain Foundation US have launched collaborations with the National Football League Players’ Association Professional Athletes Foundation (NFLPA PAF) and USA Rugby, as well as the Division on Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, which is already working with Entain on a five-year research initiative better to understand problematic and addictive behaviors.
EPIC is a global leading gambling harm minimization consultancy providing strategic advisory and impactful and proven awareness, education, and risk management programs to the highest risk sectors in over 20 countries worldwide to reduce the human, financial, brand and reputational risks associated with gambling harm.
Executive Quotes:
Martin Lycka, Entain Senior Vice President for American Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Gambling, and Trustee of the Entain Foundation US: “We know from international experience that the most successful sports betting operators are also the most responsible. As legalized sports betting continues to expand in the US, education and responsible gaming is a top priority. We are excited to expand our partnership with EPIC to reach colleges across the country to educate young people.”
John Millington, VP of US Operations at EPIC Risk Management: “We are delighted to be able to work closely with colleges around the nation on this essential education and awareness program. There is a collective responsibility to ensure the minimization of potential gambling harms, and the promotion of player safety. Our collaboration with the Entain Foundation represents a key strategic piece of our prevention pillar, and it is great that so many organizations are recognizing the importance of education and awareness for this potentially high-risk population.”
AJ Schaufler – Associate Athletic Director for Compliance, Monmouth University: “Monmouth University Hawks are delighted to have EPIC Risk Management deliver their gambling awareness and sports betting integrity education sessions to our student athletes. This is a topic that we take very seriously here at Monmouth and indeed, these sessions are providing our students with an increased understanding of the risks of problematic gambling, and in particular, its close links to sports betting integrity breaches. Furthermore, they are now better aware of the support mechanisms that are available to them and have a deeper understanding and knowledge of this growing issue. We look forward to a long and successful partnership and would absolutely recommend this to all NCAA programs across the nation.”
Shannon Raymond –Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance, Fordham University: “Fordham Athletics is excited to engage with EPIC Risk Management to educate our student-athletes around the dangers of problematic gambling and the ever-growing risk that sports betting brings to both student-athletes and institutions. As part of our overall student development and wellbeing program, we see this as an extremely beneficial collaboration and are committed to ensuring our student-athletes learn from EPIC’s expertise to better understand how student-athletes can be susceptible to gambling harm. We look forward to learning how we can best support our student-athletes in this area with a long and successful partnership with EPIC.”
BIG EAST esports teams will play against opponents from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in a Rocket League tournament for bragging rights.
Participating teams for the BIG EAST are Butler, DePaul, Creighton, Marquette, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Xavier. It will be Creighton’s debut appearance as part of BIG EAST Esports. Participating teams from the MAAC are Fairfield, Marist, Niagara, Quinnipiac and Siena.
Seeding is based on the current standings in the fall EGF Collegiate season which started Oct. 5. Marist and Fairfield from the MAAC take the top two seeds, respectively:
Competition is set to begin on Sunday, Dec. 13. The Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF) will be operating the event. Teams will compete in a best of five format, three vs. three. There are 11 games in the tournament with the first round starting at noon ET. The top four seeds received a bye to the second round. The semifinals begin at 3 p.m. with the final at 4:30 p.m. The matches can be viewed on either Twitch.tv on either the OfficialEGF channel or the EGFrocketleague channel. Links are in the schedule below.
Seeding 1 MAAC Marist 2 MAAC Fairfield 3 BIG EAST Xavier 4 BIG EAST Seton Hall 5 BIG EAST Butler 6 MAAC Quinnipiac 7 BIG EAST DePaul 8 BIG EAST Marquette 9 MAAC Siena 10 BIG EAST St. John’s 11 MAAC Niagara 12 BIG EAST Creighton
MAAC BIG EAST Challenge
Sunday, Dec. 13
Round 1
Game 1: No. 8 Marquette vs. No. 9 Siena, Noon (OfficialEGF)
Today, the BIG EAST Conference and the Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF) announced a three-year agreement that will enable all 11 member schools to compete in a year-long multigame season for the first time as official EGF Collegiate (EGFC) league members. EGFC is the national Division I Varsity Esports League with a growing number of schools bringing their own elite teams together to vie for National Championships across a number of game titles.
The EGFC Season begins October 5 and features nationwide intercollegiate competition in two eight-week splits as well as conference championships, regional playoffs and the EGFC National Championship to be held April 24-25, 2021. Expanded titles include: Rocket League, Overwatch, SSBU and FIFA. Broadcasts of all matches will be streamed on EGF’s 5 Twitch channels, the BIG EAST YouTube channel and various institutional platforms.
The BIG EAST members, located in eight of the country’s top 36 largest media markets, include Butler University, University of Connecticut, Creighton University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University and Xavier University.
“We’re very excited that the relationship BIG EAST esports has enjoyed with EGF will be continuing for the next three years with league membership across many titles,” said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. “We’re grateful for the outstanding leadership EGF provides annually to collegiate esports and look forward to partnering to bring compelling rivalry matches and broadcasts to our fans around the country.”
“We are honored to have earned the trust and respect of all the BIG EAST schools and conference leadership,” said Eric Johnson, CEO, EGF. “EGF is attracting teams who want to play against the biggest and best programs across the country for a national championship, want to have a voice and a stake in their governance, and want a partner who has the students’ passions as the top priority.
In addition to the BIG EAST’s conference wide affiliation with EGF, a growing number of other colleges and Universities are selecting EGF not only based on their competitive governance, but their commitment to serving esports communities and teams on campus and virtually through strategic partnerships, educational development, wellness, diversity and inclusion and industry leadership programs.
The esports (competitive video games) has generated more than $1 billion globally in 2019 and is expanding exponentially throughout 2020. By 2022, the growth of esports from a competition and viewer standpoint is expected to exceed 300 million participants. Division I collegiate programs began in earnest in 2015 and now feature more than 100 teams in the U.S.
