ESports enter the McGill arena

On Dec. 3, eight teams of students from universities across North America battled in the Tespa Collegiate Series: Overwatch quarterfinals. Tespa—”a network of college clubs founded to promote gaming culture and host the best college eSports events and competitions”—is one of many organizations dedicated to collegiate eSports, or competitive video-gaming. The Tespa Collegiate Series is the organization’s dedicated competition in Overwatch, one of the six games featured in the tournament. To an outsider, this organization and specific competition might sound like one of an endless number of video game challenges, but the US $120,000 in scholarship and prizes up for grabs would indicate otherwise. ESports have increased in popularity in countries around the world and the number of formal competitions continues to grow. Organizations like Tespa facilitate this growth but the rise of collegiate-level eSports in North America is still a relatively new phenomenon. Canadian and American students are generally less familiar with Tespa and other collegiate eSports organizations than with traditional sport governing bodies such as U Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).