Leveling Up: The Rapid Growth of ECU's Esports Program

August 13, 2024 by Jessika Leatherbury

By: Sunnie Dawn Baker

When Cody Soden took the Director of Alumni Relations position at ECU in March of 2023, he had no way of knowing where his life was going to lead. Within three months, he became involved with the Esports program at ECU and by August, he was officially splitting his time between the two programs. This year, as of July 1st, ECU officially appointed Soden as the full-time Director of Esports. Soden has an unbridled passion for this work; the administration saw his passion, and the value in what he was trying to accomplish and decided to let him run with it.

A lot has changed since Soden took the helm of the Esports program at ECU, since we last spoke with him. When Soden took over, the program had eight students, no budget, and little support. Since then, participation has grown to 24 students, and they now compete in more games. Initially, they had teams for Overwatch and League of Legends. In the spring, they added Fortnite and Street Fighter 6, even though there was no collegiate league for those games yet. Instead, they participated in invitationals to gain experience. For this upcoming season they are adding even more games, including Super Smash Bros., Rocketleague, and Chess. When it comes to choosing a game to compete in, Soden’s approach is team led. He says, “If I have enough players for a game, then we can find a league and happily do it.” One thing that has made it easier to find leagues is that the Great American Conference, which is the regional conference for all our traditional sports, recognized Esports for the first time ever this year.

Dr. Hayden Harrington from SWOSU spearheaded the initiative to include Esports in the Great American Conference. When Soden heard about this, he jumped on board actively and enthusiastically. They had to make presentations and get their boards of directors and university presidents to agree, but, eventually, they made the case and added Esports to the conference. This is only the second D2 Regional Conference in the nation to have Esports, but, with its growing popularity, soon more will follow. This is significant for ECU because they can now build relationships with other schools and be a part of a larger Esports network. Because the Great American Conference now recognizes Esports, three schools that did not previously have Esports are now fielding teams.

While Esports continues to grow in popularity, there are still many who question the validity of it. Soden, however, is not offended by this and uses this skepticism as an opportunity to champion something he is passionate about. While some people might not understand the significance of Esports in our world, college students do and that is what matters most, especially when it comes to recruitment and retention. When prospective students and their parents tour ECU, there is usually a lot of excitement around the Esports program, especially with the growth over the past year. Soden can give scholarship money to both incoming freshmen and returning students, which not only alleviates financial burdens but also lets the students know that they are valued as members of a team. Soden will also have six student workers in the fall who will have a chance to learn skills and complete projects that will prepare them for the workforce, such as creating marketing materials, editing videos, and running twitch streams. Soden notes, “I can safely say that I am the only place on campus who has students doing the commentary on the actual broadcast of a sport.”

In addition to the skills that his student workers will learn, Esports also trains the students to be adaptable and collaborative, and to handle constructive criticism. These skills not only contribute to being a good person but also to being an effective leader and employee. . Soden says, “One thing I have been telling business leaders is that if you are looking for people who are coachable, have transferrable skills, and can adapt to the changing market, then look to Esports.” Many of the students that Soden works with have never been coached before; they have not been on a sports team, they haven’t been in music lessons, they haven’t had the experience of being coached. Esports gives them that opportunity. They must work with their teammates, adapt to constantly changing games and technologies, and even more importantly, receive feedback and use it in a positive and productive way.

Esports at ECU helps the university and students, but also the community at large. Soden and his team work with local schools and organizations to help their own Esports teams improve, while also providing fun team building experiences. The growth that the team has seen within a single year is phenomenal and it will be exciting to see what happens in the 2024-2025 school year. As a part of welcome week at ECU, they will be hosting a Super Smash Bros. tournament in the University Center on Tuesday, August 20^th, at 6:00 PM. Then, the following week, they will hold try-outs for the upcoming season on August 26^th -30^th in the Esports Competition Lab at the ECU University Center. Each day features a different game. Monday is Overwatch, Tuesday is League of Legends, Wednesday is Fortnight, Thursday is the close combat games like Super Smash Bros., Streetfighter 6, and Tekken, and then Friday is open but more specifically targeting Rocketleague and Chess. For more information about Esports at ECU, follow ECU Tiger Esports on Facebook @eastcentralesports or contact Cody Soden at csoden@ecok.edu, and watch for more exciting updates in the future!

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