E-sports developing in Windsor

The idea of playing video games competitively has spread from its beginnings in South Korea to Europe and the United States. Windsor is fast becoming a home to this new frontier in entertainment.

Nowhere is this more apparent then St. Clair College, where a varsity e-sports team has grown since its inception in 2017. E-sports – competitive gaming which has all the players, drama and skill of physical games – is gaining a place locally. This was made possible by Shaun Byrne, 29, who is the director of e-sports at St. Clair College. His experience with the field stretches back to his time at the University of Windsor running an e-sports club with his friends.

“What it led to was amazing,” said Byrne. “We had hundreds of students coming out to events wanting to get involved with this club. That’s when it made us realize that there may be more of an opportunity here than we realized.”

Byrne and his friends launched an e-sports company called E-Sports Gaming Events in 2012 with startup funding from the University of Windsor. Byrne spent five years organizing e-sports events all over Ontario, Michigan and Quebec. 

Byrne ended up in contact with St. Clair when the college consulted him for help with a project. 

“That project was moving one of the e-sports events here that has been run for a few years over to the new SportsPlex building when that opened up in 2016 or early 2017,” Byron said.

Through this project, Byrne laid the foundations for what would become St. Clair’s e-sports team. Once approval was given, Byrne drew on his experiences and contacts to create the program.

“The first thing I had to do was reach out into my circle and ask for help…. Right away I decided ‘Okay, I need to find some coaches.’. That was the first step,” said Byrne.

Jacob Briand, 21, is the coach of the Rainbow Six: Siege team for St. Clair College. He said his team is very motivated to take their game to the next level.

“It’s just something where they can learn how to play the game in a different way and still compete,” said Briand about what motivates his team to play.

Briand said he has seen the industry grow since joining St. Clair’s team.

“Before, it wasn’t really acceptable to go to school and play video games,” Briand said. “Now it has become that you go to school for video games.”

While the academic and athletic side of the e-sports program has developed, these efforts have translated into tangible results.

“Since February 2018, we’ve had over 11 million views on our program across Twitch, YouTube and highlight videos,” said Byrne.

According to Byrne, the other benefits to St. Clair include a large number of students having an outlet for their enjoyment of gaming.

“There was a big portion of the student population that simply wasn’t being addressed with activities and student life,” said Byrne.

This unrepresented portion of St. Clair’s attendees was given an outlet for their interests in the creation of St. Clair’s e-sports team, although they aren’t the only group that benefits.

“It’s helping enrolment and retention,” said Byrne. “We’re becoming known at St. Clair College as a destination for gamers and people that are interested in this industry.” 

Byrne also cited an informal survey he held with his class of 60 students, finding almost half of them arrived from outside Windsor-Essex County. 

Byrne’s view of Windsor’s e-sports future is bright.

“It would not be surprising to me if within the next five years, every high school within Windsor-Essex County ends up launching an e-sports team,” Byrne said.