Students in the e-sports program take a class.
14:12 JST, February 1, 2024
SUNDERLAND, England (AFP-Jiji) – Rows of super-powerful computers fill a classroom in northeast England, their LED-lit keyboards, mice and headsets washing the room in a futuristic blue glow.
They all cost £3,000 (almost $4,000) and are intended for one thing: training students to play video games at the highest level.
The new kit is part of a new esports campus recently opened in the city of Sunderland, aiming to boost the country’s virtual sports sector.
Dave Martin, chief operating officer at the British Esports Federation, said there was “incredible talent” in the country.
But he believes more can be done, especially as other countries are further ahead.
Dave Martin
Popularity
Esports – competitive gaming at a professional level – is growing enormously in popularity and was officially recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2017.
The global market is worth more than $1.8 billion, according to a report by Nielsen and the specialized foundation ex corp. published in August.
That’s still less than 1% of the entire video games market worldwide.
But the esports sector is growing rapidly.
Between 2017 and 2022, the country tripled in size globally and is expected to grow by another 50% by 2026.
In Britain, the esports market was valued at more than $69 million in 2022, far behind industry giants such as China ($594 million) and the United States ($440 million), the report said.
In an effort to catch up, the British Esports Federation has invested £7.0 million in Sunderland’s National Esports Performance Campus (NEPC).
The entrance to The Place, an office workspace that houses the National Esports Performance Campus, is on display on December 19 in Sunderland, England.
Martin said he hopes it will “improve the UK esports ecosystem from the bottom up.”
The federation already offers training for a range of professions in the gaming industry, including marketing, match broadcasting, team management and pro-gaming itself.
Olympics
The new NEPC will not focus solely on training future players.
It will also train other future industry professionals through a partnership with Sunderland College, a local higher education institution whose buildings it shares.
“The esports industry is made up of many different professions,” explains Toby Bowery, leader of Sunderland College’s esports programme.
“There is the event management side of things, the business side of things. There’s the creative media side of things. Then you have the sporting side of things” with players, psychologists and nutritionists, he added.
Bowery described the facility as a “real working environment” shared with the British Esports Federation, allowing students to meet professional players.
Prize pools in virtual sports now surpass traditional sports.
Each of the five-person teams that won 2021’s ‘The International’ – a showpiece tournament hosted annually for esports giant DOTA 2 – took home more than $3.6 million.
By comparison, Wimbledon tennis champion Novak Djokovic won $2.2 million that year.
In September 2023, the IOC announced the creation of a separate committee dedicated to esports, to develop virtual sports as an Olympic staple.
Sunderland’s new campus will soon complete construction of “The Arena”, a complex designed to host esports tournaments.
‘Very surreal’
Nicholas Wilkinson, a student from the university’s esports programme, called the development of an esports campus in North East England ‘quite surreal’.
He hopes to start a career as a ‘caster’ – the esports equivalent of a professional commentator.
Previously, “every time you wanted to go to an esports event or do something for esports, you would have to travel south to London, to Nottingham,” Wilkinson said.
Another student on the course, Evan Howey, wants to become a professional player.
“Different people on the course have different interests,” he explained.
As students want to secure various jobs in the sector, he says it would be good to encourage collaboration to promote growth.
The new campus is also a gateway for “students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not have access to this equipment at all at home,” says Chris Jeffrey, an independent game developer and esports coach.
