Power Up

By Sloan MacRae, January 29, 2025
IC’s new Esports Lounge provides a state-of-the-art venue for its national championship club and students eager to engage with the world’s fastest-growing spectator sport.

Ethan Johnson ’27, a film, photography, and visual arts major from Daytona, Florida, chose Ithaca College because it had a competitive esports club. A gamer from a young age, Johnson had narrowed his college choices to a final decision between IC and Hofstra. Both schools had esports clubs, and he emailed students from each school to find out more. He liked what he heard about IC’s program. Yes, it was small, but it was growing, and he could join a Rocket League team immediately. Best of all, he had heard that IC’s new-and-improved Esports Lounge was slated to open soon.

The lounge, now open, empowers student gamers to compete at all levels and student broadcasters (or casters as they’re more often called in the esports world) to hone skills valued by the esports industry and its global audience of 640 million viewers. Those numbers exceed the global audience of the National Football League, and they’re still growing—posting a 47% increase since just 2020.

The esports industry provides dozens of career on-ramps for recent college graduates, from broadcasting and game development to business and marketing, skills the new Esports Lounge will invite students to experiment with and practice.

"There’s so much tremendous opportunity for Ithaca College to become a leader in this space … I just see a powerhouse.” 

Nathan Lindberg ’06, head of U.S. brand partnerships, Overwolf

The lounge—the realization of a longtime collaboration among staff, faculty, and students in information technology, facilities, campus recreation, the Roy H. Park School of Communications, and IC’s student-run Esports and Gaming Club—opened in October 2024, with a ribbon cutting ceremony headlined by IC’s president La Jerne Terry Cornish, vice president of information technology and analytics and chief information officer David Weil '87, MS '89, and esports club president Max Austin ’25, and attended by students, faculty, and staff from across the college.

The new space offers IC’s esports club, which has already nabbed two National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) Rocket League trophies (proudly displayed in a trophy case at the lounge’s entrance), with a professional venue for practice and competition while doubling the number of professional gaming PCs. It also features an adjoining two-person broadcast booth that enables the club to livestream its games and students to produce professional esports broadcasts. What’s more, the lounge is in Friends Hall on a well-travelled path for campus tours, easily accessible to prospective students who might be interested in a college that can help them forge pathways to this fast-growing industry or who want to compete with a club that wins national titles.

IC’s Esports Lounge was a long time in the making, and the original venue was actually scheduled to open, albeit on a smaller scale and in a different space, in 2020. Andy Hogan, IC’s director of engagement and client technologies, joined the college in 2018. At his previous post at Keuka College, he and his colleagues coordinated a gaming tournament. Hogan was eager to do something similar at IC, and when he put out feelers, he learned that there was not only tremendous appetite but that Sean Reilley and Brad Buchanan in the Office of Campus Recreation were also exploring possibilities. The conversations started in 2018, and the project received funding and planning in 2019. Construction for the original esports room was completed in early spring 2020, but students did not return that semester due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite COVID’s obstacles, it was by no means game over for the Esports Lounge.

In the fall semester 2020, there were no games to cover for the student broadcast crew assigned to IC’s football team. But IC’s Esports and Gaming Club was active and streaming its competitions. Esports viewers watch livestreams and depend on the casters to make the games easier to follow and more exciting. As with any spectator sport, most viewers like to hear about what they’re watching. They’re interested in inside narratives about the individual gamers and team dynamics as well as insights into tactics and strategy. The content created around esports broadcasting entertains its massive audience, and compelling streamers have built their own brands and cultivated millions of followers.

During that no-football season, Manny Sanchez ’22 , a television, photography, and digital media major and member of the club’s League of Legends team, proposed that his crew create content for the club’s games and tournaments. The crew was so good at it that they captured the attention of other colleges’ gamers. At the time, IC’s club participated in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament. When IC’s League of Legends team was eliminated, the caster crew and the students operating cameras and switchers and creating the graphics were invited to stream the tournament’s Grand Final for the ECAC’s Twitch Channel. To borrow lingo from League of Legends, Ithaca College students delivered an alpha strike and made quite the first impression for fans.

Pac-Man, Rocket League, and Everything in Between

The new Esports Lounge occupies a space originally created as a computer lab that saw dwindling usage by students over the years, due to the ubiquitousness of laptops. The first things a visitor to the space encounters is the aforementioned trophy case (with plenty of room for future hardware to join the two Rocket League titles) and a sleek reception desk equipped with LEDs and incorporating a branded circuit board motif that is repeated throughout the space.

The lounge’s branding and blue lighting design are markedly different from the branding of the esports club and its uniforms. Austin, esports club president who is majoring in advertising, public relations, and marketing communications, said this is intentional because the lounge is for the entire student community: Everyone gets to use it, not just members of the club.

Once in the lounge, a visitor would see 12 professional gaming consoles on the left, doubling the complement formerly available in IC’s original esports area. The new stations allow for two teams to play at the same time or to practice against each other. Gamers can use the 75-inch wall-mounted monitors to review previous games and strategize improvements.

“We’re always looking to have more teams ... if more people want to participate and see what it’s like to be on a team, they absolutely can and will.”

Max Austin '25, President of Ithaca College's Esports Club

A person plays retro Pac-Man.

A student plays Pac-Man on the retro arcade in the Esports Lounge. (Photo by Natalie Curry and Mackenzie Torelli)

On the right, two casual gaming consoles feature Nintendo Switches, Xboxes, and Sony PlayStations, complete with comfy, branded couches. Students are welcome to walk in and play games of their choice. The space is also available to faculty and staff. Members of the marketing and communications team, including Shelly Jackman, the designer who created many of the lounge’s graphics, held an informal Mario Kart tournament at the division’s retreat, just a few days after the lounge opened.

A retro arcade console rounds out the casual gaming area and features thousands of old-school titles from Space Invaders and Ms. Pac-Man to Q*bert. Ash Bailot, who, as the makerspace and specialized technology lab coordinator as well as the manager for the Esports Lounge, suggested the inclusion of the retro arcade because they thought it would prove nostalgic for some faculty and staff. Thankfully, unlike the arcade games of yore, no quarters are necessary to play.

The two-person broadcast booth was created in consultation with Nigel Martin, director of technical operations; Alex Estabrook, assistant professor of media arts, sciences, and studies; and Nathan Lindberg ’06, head of U.S. brand partnerships for the esports industry leader Overwolf and whose meteoric career trajectory on the advertising side of esports included a seven-year post at the livestreaming juggernaut Twitch. The broadcast booth shares a wall with the professional gaming space and has a window that looks in on the gamers. A green screen enables casters to use virtual backgrounds. They can also freeze and annotate gameplay, much like Monday Night Football commentators do. A traditional “on air” sign signals that the booth is live during broadcasts. The PC monitors are equipped with cameras, allowing the casters to capture gamers’ reactions during play.

Bailot said that early usage of the lounge has exceeded expectations and that the space has reached capacity on some Fridays. They describe the room’s atmosphere when a club team is competing: “You walk in, and it’s dead silent, and you just hear the tip-tapping of the keyboards and the clicking of the mice, and every so often, someone will break the silence and yell in excitement or frustration.” The vibe is far more relaxed when the club is not competing, and most of the students are in the couches playing Switch or PlayStation games. Bailot said, “We’ve got the dim lights and the colorful LEDS—it feels almost like a little cozy cave.”

"Our advantage is our content creation ... That’s a space we can really lean into with esports. It helps that the club has a couple trophies in the case already."

Alex Estabrook, assistant professor of media arts, sciences, and studies

Competition and Content Creation

Unlike fellow gamer Ethan Johnson, Max Austin did not base his college decision on IC’s esports club or facilities. The program was “in its infancy,” he said. But he thinks the new lounge will prove a game changer: “It will definitely impact people trying to decide if IC’s right for them—a fully fleshed-out esports program, multiple titles, an entire high-tech state-of-the-art room. That will impact people’s decisions, especially people who don’t have access to that kind of thing outside of school or access to the best equipment.”

Aside from two Rocket League teams (the two trophies are Rocket League championships, a game featuring rocket-powered vehicles playing a giant game of soccer), IC’s club includes teams that play the tactical first-person shooter games Valorant and Overwatch, and a team that competes in the battle arena game League of Legends .

What excites Austin most about the lounge is what made him fall in love with gaming in the first place: “My favorite thing is the community it creates,” he said. “Being in a room filled with good energy of a bunch of people having a good time, creating an environment where everyone is accepted—it allows you to play the game at a higher level. It also helps you develop communication skills when you’re playing at that level—communications skills, teamwork, how you work with other people.”

There's a strategy in all of it. Strategy is a huge part of what esports is."

Max Austin '25, President of Ithaca College's Esports Club

Those communication skills can translate to leadership, said Austin. “Often, you’ll have in-game leaders…one player who is specifically there to make calls and organize plays, organize the team, make sure everyone’s on the same page, and level-headed. There are certain players who are better for that role than others,” he said. “Leadership in that kind of role plays a big part, sort of commanding the room, explaining your thoughts clearly and concisely to get people to do what you want in a way that doesn’t make them angry or hurt anyone’s feelings, that doesn’t create any rifts in the team.”

Some traditional sports purists tend to look down on esports and insist it’s not a real a sport. Austin concedes that actual physical athleticism usually doesn’t play a role in esports, but many of the skills valued in the traditional sports world do cross over, especially strategy and tactics.

“When you’re playing soccer, you need to know how to work the pitch, position your teammates and the ball. In football, you run plays, you are planning set plays that you believe will work well against the other team. Even in track, when you’re running, knowing when to break around your opponent, if you do it before or after, it can mess up your time. There's a strategy in all of it. Strategy is a huge part of what esports is."

There’s also hand-eye coordination, which Austin said “is a giant aspect of many games. Baseball takes huge hand-eye coordination to hit the ball going 70, 80, 90 miles an hour—tennis too. In esports, you’re making very precise clicks with quick reaction times.”

Estabrook noted that the legitimate sports debate is beside the point. Esports is here to stay. “The data supports that people are playing video games more and more. There’s a lot of room for change and growth in the space. If you just look at the eyeballs that are drawn from games like Overwatch and League of Legends and Madden and FIFA , the engagement level just for viewership rivals any major sport and most content production operations across the world. The number of people that play games is mindboggling. It is in the billions. I don’t think gaming is going anywhere.”

Two students in front of a greenscreen in a broadcast booth labeled "Ithaca College Esports."

Student casters in the Esports Lounge's broadcast booth, complete with greenscreen. (Photo by Natalie Curry and Mackenzie Torelli)

Esports also provides an incubator for creativity and collaboration, Estabrook noted. He teaches an esports content production course each spring that “focuses on the presentation of gaming, mostly with esports competitive gaming, but we also had a Minecraft Day where students worked together in one space. Some of them worked alone to speedrun through, but a lot of them worked together to advance the game. That’s what the course is about, experimenting and creating content through the use of video games and innovating—finding new ways to do it.”

That course is not alone in the Park School’s offerings. Estabrook emphasized, “We have writing for video games classes, and we have some PlayStation consoles in Park. There are spots in the curriculum where you’re playing a game, and you’re breaking down the narrative structure. I’m planning on running a Jumpstart orientation program next August to connect with students new to campus through video games. I also have minicourses in esports, and I’m building one that’s mindful gaming, the idea that you’re playing a game intentionally, not just to fill time or mindlessly—turning that engagement to mindful engagement, doing it for joy, for calmness, for connection.”

He also wants to expand the esports production curriculum by offering both introductory and advanced levels. He said that in the current course “we spend a lot of time building stuff from the ground up, and then our best stuff happens right at the end of the semester. I’d love to expand that and turn that into a longer-form curriculum, and the students who take that class have told me they’d take it again.”

Estabrook looks forward to more collaborative opportunities between gamers on the consoles and casters in the booth. “I think the window [in the broadcast booth], while it’s not necessarily conventional, is super useful. In production, there are times you want to peek through the control room to the production to see if there’s something going wrong or something going right. So having a caster who can not only watch the screens but who can see the camera and direct but can also look up and see when there’s a moment…maybe the gamers are getting out of their chairs or having a side conversation that maybe the audience would be interested to see if they’re animated. Having that extra view can be helpful.”

“One of the first things I tell students is their best friends are those lesser-known sports ... there’s always, always room for a caster in a video game. You can always log on and find a game to cast. And just get good at that. Get your reps up. We have alum who are in that space now. It’s a great way to get started and build your reel.”

Alex Estabrook, assistant professor of media arts, sciences, and studies

Does the new space enhance IC’s position in the esports higher education landscape? Estabrook says yes. “This facility jumped us up a couple levels. When we started talking about this during the pandemic, I would frankly say we were a little behind, and now we’ve very much caught up.” He added, “Our advantage is our content creation. What we do well here and what we’ve won awards for, year in year out, are the production facilities and operations, ICTV, IC radio. That’s a space we can really lean into with esports. It helps that the club has a couple trophies in the case already.”

That creative energy can help interested students create pathways into the industry. Manny Sanchez, the alumnus who suggested livestreaming esports in lieu of football games during the pandemic, has already written his own success story. An associate broadcast producer for Riot Games—the developer behind Valorant , League of Legends , and some of the biggest titles in the industry—he also won an Emmy in 2023 for Outstanding Esports Championship Coverage.

Estabrook, who teaches an advanced sports broadcast class and advises sports media students, noted that the facility is a space for students to experiment and find their own voices in the industry. “One of the first things I tell students is their best friends are those lesser-known sports like lacrosse and even, for mainstream American audiences anyway, soccer or hockey. It’s a crowded field in football and basketball around here, but in my experience, knowing those other sports can be a real advantage when they’re looking to get into the business, and there’s always, always room for a caster in a video game. You can always log on and find a game to cast. And just get good at that. Get your reps up. We have alum who are in that space now. It’s a great way to get started and build your reel.”

“There’s so much tremendous opportunity for Ithaca College to become a leader in this space,” Lindberg concurred. “I’m incredibly enthusiastic and optimistic for what IC can achieve, and not just on a competitive level. If you look at all the things that make Ithaca College great, from communications, theater, video production, broadcasting, content creation … I just see a powerhouse that could be ready to go and activated in such a way that taps into not just the talents of students but also their passions.”

It’s not only casters that IC’s esports program needs; it’s more gamers.

Austin recalled that last year’s championship Rocket League team might have posted a perfect season, but it had to forfeit one game because a player wasn’t available, and they could not seat an entire team.

Because the NECC creates and assigns brackets based on teams’ overall skill levels, new players will find the right skill levels at which they can compete. They can also play immediately. As long as there are enough players to fill a team, no one will have to put in time on the bench.

Austin said, “We’re always looking to have more teams. If we have enough people to make another team, we’ll make another team and not have people sitting on the sidelines. If more people want to play, if more people want to participate and see what it’s like to be on a team, they absolutely can and will.”

New players will find themselves competing against colleges and universities across the nation, and not just in Division III. The NECC pits gamers from juggernauts like the University of Connecticut against students from colleges like IC and everything in between.

“What Ithaca Is About“

It didn’t take the esports club long to use its new space to demonstrate IC’s commitment to community impact. In December, the club streamed its annual 24-hour Charity Power Up drive, raising money this year for Village at Ithaca, a youth and family-centered nonprofit that addresses systemic injustice through responsive anti-racist programming and services to build an equitable and inclusive community. The new space greatly improved the production values and overall quality of the livestream.

“What I like about the Esports Lounge is that it really brings together so much of what Ithaca is about,” said Dave Weil. “First of all, it's an incredible facility. It was purpose-built with so much input from the students as to what they wanted to see, and I'm really excited about the way it turned out. But I also think it cuts across different areas of our campus. For example, we have one of the few esports lounges that has a broadcast booth, which brings in students and staff from the Park School of Communications and their partnership. Then we have recreational sports and faculty from various areas that teach about esports and the industry. I also like that it's a place for students to connect with one another and to really build on their college experience."

Weil said the Esports Lounge provides an opportunity to expand and improve the nearby makerspace: “I’m also excited that we’re now going to have a look at our makerspace across the hall and see what we can do with that. We’re going to expand it into the former esports space next door and spruce that up as well, to provide a modern, consistent experience across both spaces.”

At the lounge’s ribbon cutting ceremony, Andy Hogan—one of the catalysts who got the idea for it rolling and saw it through to completion—grinned in the packed room as he watched excited student gamers compete on PCs against President Cornish. He said what makes him most proud about the project is the deliberate way IC collaborated with student gamers from the start.

He spoke with colleagues from Cornell University, who had also recently unveiled an esports facility. He said, “Cornell shared their business plan with us and lessons learned. One of the biggest takeaways they gave us was, ‘keep the students engaged the entire process.’ And that’s something we did. The Esports and Gaming Club leadership has been engaged from the initial discussions throughout the planning, through the construction phases.”

One anecdote from Hogan sums up the entire enterprise. Over the summer, he worked with Austin on the final phases of the lounge while most of the other students in the club were unavailable over the break. When IC returned to session, Hogan convened a Zoom meeting to update the club leadership and team members. Dave Weil captured some screen shots of the students at the meeting. Hogan said, “Their smiles were ear to ear.”

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