Hello all! I’m Sam Viesselman, a 2013/2014 staff member who has primarily worked on Glitch’s Operations team for the past year. I’ve been involved in the Glitch’s eSports program as a player on the StarCraft 2 team since 2010, and functioned as the StarCraft 2 general manager this previous school year. I’ve also been closely involved with designing the infrastructure for the competitive League of Legends team. I’m here to talk a bit about Glitch’s future with eSports.
Overview of eSports in Glitch
Since 2010, two competitive eSports teams were officially supported through Glitch, League of Legends and StarCraft 2. These teams were able to reserve rooms and practice every weekend in a team structure organized by the respective general manager who was hired by Glitch for each title. Subsidized jerseys along with event entry fees and free memberships were also provided to players on the teams.
Additionally, Glitch has hosted several tournaments with substantial prizing over the past few years at events such as the Midwest Meltdown, CSE LAN, and GlitchCon. These tournaments included a variety of games but mostly focused on StarCraft 2 and League of Legends, giving local talent a chance to either compete or be involved in the production process (casting, broadcasting, etc).
End of Internal Support for eSports
In the upcoming semesters, Glitch will no longer internally hire and manage these eSports teams. Glitch will also be reducing the frequency of large scale tournaments hosted significantly. It saddens me to make this announcement as I’ve enjoyed watching the program develop over the years; however there are several key reasons for this discontinuation.
Both the eSport teams and tournaments required a large number of resources and time from Glitch to run well. Although there is a portion of the community who is passionate about eSports, the general population of over 150 UofM student members do not experience the benefits from resources allocated to eSports.
One of the biggest issues has been the unreliable competitive team leagues where our eSports teams compete. In the previous seasons we’ve had many discouraging experiences such as; weekly no-shows from our competition, difficulty scheduling scrimmages and strict requirements on eligibility. Our current model of weekly practices and high time commitments from both players and team managers simply does not fit the environment.
For these reasons, Glitch is ending the current eSports program and hosting of highly competitive tournaments in favor of more casual community focused events and programs.
Future Involvement in eSports
In the upcoming semester Glitch will be adding a staff member known as the Operations Manager. This person’s role is to be resource to help any up and coming eSports teams and organization. This includes; answering questions about leagues, offering past experience managing teams, and providing guidance to aspiring organizers. The Operations Manager will also be available to assist organizers in reserving rooms on campus for team practices.
By creating this role, Glitch will be able to have a “go-to” person on staff who will assist any upcoming eSports teams for any titles (Dota, Starcraft, League of Legends, Call of Duty, etc) or organizations here at the University of MInnesota. In fact, Glitch is prepared to help a promising teams or groups in the following ways:
Information on Building a Student Group:
- – Working with Student Unions
- – Applying for Grants
- – Creating a Constitution
- – Partnership Events
- – General Equipment Rental
- – Tournament Prizes and Giveaways
Glitch will have more details posted about these intended support systems before the beginning of the school year.
Final Thoughts
Although it’s unfortunate to see Glitch taking a step back from the world of competitive gaming, there still is an eSports niche to be filled on campus. I would love to see a group of motivated students use the support system described above and create something truly amazing here at the University of Minnesota for eSports. It would also be awesome to see some more titles other than League of Legends and StarCraft 2 flourish here on campus. Best of luck to anyone who is interested in taking on these projects and don’t ever be afraid to reach out the Glitch staff for support!
