Liberty eSports Club Experiences Growth

Jaden Shaw spent his middle school afternoons like most people his age — playing “Call of Duty.”

But in 2013, Shaw stumbled upon something that would drastically change his relationship with video games.

“I discovered that people played games for a living,” Shaw said. “And I was blown away by it.”

Shaw dreamed of becoming an eSports superstar where he would compete in massive arenas for millions of dollars. But fate would have it otherwise.

“I tried to be a player, and I realized … that I was not the top one percent of players that were going to go compete,” Shaw said.

In high school, Shaw took an interest in sports business, particularly eSports. After graduating, he decided to come to Liberty University to study marketing and sports management.

At Liberty, Shaw ran into an old friend who recently started an eSports team and needed a manager.

“One of my friends came to me and said, ‘Hey, I know you’re into eSports, I play Dota, and we need a manager.’  I thought, ‘this is my inroad,’” Shaw said.

Shaw agreed to become the team’s manager and has since grown his small, four-person squad into a club with over 125 members.

The growth of Liberty’s eSports program has been rapid since its inception in November 2017. As a special division of the Gaming Club, the eSports Club competes in eight different games with 15 different teams and even has its own sponsor, Savage Apparel.

“If you would have told me in November that I would be at 125 members with an apparel sponsorship and the level of players that I have, I would have laughed at you,” Shaw said.

Over the past several years, the eSports industry has seen significant growth as well as media attention, airing competitions on networks such as TBS.

According to statistics from the official “League of Legends” website, over 360 million people live streamed the 2017 “League of Legends’” Mid-Season Invitational over the course of the event. That is over three times the amount of viewers that watched the 2017 Super Bowl.

The collegiate scene, however, is not there yet.

“You see schools accepting it more one by one,” Shaw said. “I think in the next five to seven years, you’re going to see more schools getting behind it, and funding the programs, and even giving scholarships,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he had learned a lot from this past season and already has high expectations for next year. “Next year, I (am) hoping to have completely solid rosters and more of a media presence,” Shaw said. “Right now, I’m just continuing my focus on club professionalism … If we don’t have good social media and our players don’t act professionally, it’s going to be hard to grow.”

Shaw would also like to see the school become more actively involved in the club with support and funding.

“From the faculty I’ve talked to, they have all been super receptive and on board, but we still have a lot to prove,” Shaw said.