UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Every year, thousands of Penn State students, faculty and staff anticipate the arrival of the spring intramural sports season. Due to the switch to remote work and learning for the spring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Campus Recreation has shifted its traditional spring IM league to offer something new and exciting — ESports.
In late March of this year, Campus Recreation staff formed the first ever ESports League for University Park students and Campus Recreation members as part of the IM sports program. IM sports offers a variety of team and individual sports competitions designed to meet the social and competitive needs of students, faculty and staff at the University Park campus.
“ESports is growing as an idea within campus recreation departments across the nation,” said Sylvain Tchaptchet, competitive sports coordinator with Campus Recreation, a unit of Penn State Student Affairs. “Because Campus Recreation has been in the planning process for a new ESports lounge at the White Building, IM sports had been considering ESports as a future program for a couple of semesters. When Penn State transitioned to remote learning, we started exploring ESports more actively as a way to engage students remotely and help them continue with a sense of community while away from campus.”
On the first day of registration through IMLeagues, six games — including Madden NFL20, FIFA20, Hearthstone, Fortnite, Rocket League, and NBA 2K20 — opened to all Penn State University Park students and Campus Recreation members. Campus Recreation then added two additional games — NHL20 and MLB The Show 19 — based on student feedback. Due to the popularity of the program so far, Campus Recreation expects to continue adding more games, including non-sports related games.
Since the ESports League opened, more than 800 individuals and teams registered for the eight games. Like any IM sports, every champion within this new league will receive a championship t-shirt and be recognized as a first-ever ESports champion at Penn State.
For additional information regarding the ESports League, please visit https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/campusrec/imsports or contact Intramural Sports directly at imsports@psu.edu.