Multimedia production student Perry Le is doing some target practice in the Valorant shooting range before taking on real opponents during a team practice.
Lethbridge College is expanding its definition of sports with increasing support in collegiate esports.
Lethbridge College is still very early in its esports journey, but the college has been great in supporting efforts with access to space, technology and staff to test the waters. The college’s venture into esports began in 2021 with a small Rocket League tournament that was supported by staff and students. They are now running intramurals with the support of the Lethbridge College Students’ Association and four varsity teams as part of the athletics program. The college was able to run a large-scale test tournament that took support from several groups and was a huge success. Lethbridge College esports coach Allison Cikor has been amazed at the support from by the college.
“I think it really speaks to how Lethbridge College is really willing to take a chance and support exciting new initiatives, especially where it can provide new opportunities to the college community.”
Since starting esports events, the college has had teams taking part in both Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) tournaments. Lethbridge College is also one of only 13 post secondary institutions registered with the Canadian Collegiate Esports League (CCEL).
Esports programs will look different in each institution, some schools have it offered as a club, others it’s part of Athletics. The league structure is very different compared to traditional sports where you have the same games being played every year under one governing body.
In comparison to traditional sports, the global eSports viewership stood at 496 million people worldwide in 2020. Viewership is expected to reach 646 million people by 2023. In just two years they are expecting 796 million global viewers by 2024 which is nearly a 200% increase from 2020. The global viewership of the 10 most popular traditional sports ranges from 400 million to 2.5 billion. Based on those numbers, esports is making a huge name for itself as a still growing sports industry.
Todd Caughlin, Lethbridge College’s manager of athletics & recreation services, is excited about esports at the college.
“It brings such a different and unique feature to Lethbridge College as a whole.”
Caughlin says the college has been looking at starting the esports program for multiple years and the COVID-19 pandemic ended up speeding up the process.
The Kodiaks esports League of Legends team will be facing off in a tournament against the SAIT Trojans team and the Keyano Huskies on April 6 and again for Rocket League on April 8.
