Gaming clubs and competitive esports teams are now part of the fabric of college life, right alongside service fraternities, club sports, and cultural organizations. And based on a recent award, no one in the nation is doing it better than UNC Greensboro’s Gaming and Esports Club.
This year, the club won a Scholastic Esports Award for Student Club of the Year. After a nominating committee named six finalists, voting was open to the public and UNCG’s student-run club topped those from University of Houston, Drexel University, Texas Southern University, University of Cincinnati, and University of Tennessee. Jordin Hipps, club president, was also a finalist for Student Leader of the Year.
Welcome In for the Win
Sophie Priest, director of esports innovation and advisor to the club, tributes the win to the organization’s commitment to community. While other clubs focused their entries on tournament wins, UNCG touted events like karaoke nights which are open to the campus community, and how its members mentor middle school students in the Girls Who Game program.
“We have an extremely robust competitive program, but our club is so much more than that,” Priest says.
Though gaming is the common thread uniting club members, their meetings and events welcome students with varied interests. “Our weekly meetings aren’t super related to gaming,” says club president Hipps. “People who aren’t big gamers feel welcome, and our community events help us to connect outside of the screen in a much more genuine way.”
In addition to karaoke, they host cookouts at Piney Lake, kickball games on campus, and movie nights, though none hold the cachet of karaoke. “Karaoke is really popular,” she said. “We try to do at least two karaoke nights per semester, but students are always asking for more.”
Not Just Fun & Games
Besides smashing and blasting, esports club members are also connecting with academics and career preparation. “Many of our members have declared an esports minor,” Hipps says. “A big part of our community wants to learn more about combining their interests with academics through esports.”
Esports staff members like Priest go straight to the Gaming and Esports Club when they need help organizing tournaments held on campus. “It’s not exclusively a club thing, but our media content creation and broadcast committees are filled with club members,” says Priest. “Students in our esports club are getting amazing hands-on experience promoting and streaming esports tournaments we host at UNCG.”
Support and Leadership Builds Growth
Hipps traveled to the three-day esports conference at Ohio State University to accept the award for the club. She’s a fourth-year marketing major who has been involved in the Esports and Gaming Club since her first year at UNCG and has watched it grow from around 15 members to more than 40.
Hipps feels fortunate to lead a campus organization with great support from the University in general, and specifically from staff advisors like Priest and Zach Ephlin, assistant director of esports.
“Zach and Sophie are always supportive of my crazy ideas for the club,” she says. “We love that Zach stays focused on helping students have an experience that they’ll remember forever – whether it’s in a tournament or one of the club’s social events.”
“College is where you find out what defines you and makes you, you,” says Hipps. “My involvement in the esports club has helped me discover that in so many ways.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.
Photos by Sean Norona, University Communications, unless otherwise noted.
