Plugging In – richmondmagazine.com

Beyond Richmond’s growing tournament gaming scene, esports — video games played competitively by professionals — is on the rise, with thousands of teams across the nation participating. Statista, a global data and business intelligence research platform, notes a surge in professional esports within the United States, attributing the growth to factors such as the rising popularity of digital gaming, increased accessibility and a positive shift in the general acceptance of the virtual sport. Furthering the potential career path on a local level are collegiate programs including Richard Bland College’s esports arena and Virginia Union University’s degree enrichment certificate, and the sanctioning of the activity on a high school level via the Virginia High School League.

This weekend, Aug. 30-31, ImmerseCon, a STEM skills expo and gaming convention, returns for a second year at the Hilton Hotel & Spa Short Pump. It features the RVA Esports Championship, also in its second year. The organizers of the event wanted to host it locally, noticing a lack of large esports tournaments in the Richmond area. Dan Hurt, the director of RVA Esports, says the benefits youth receive from participating in organized gaming are skills they can carry with them through life.

“There is a segment of our youth and young adults that aren’t athletic, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the benefits of what team sports, esports, competitive sports, give them,” Hurt says, noting that esports in general is still in the early stages of gaining traction. “It takes folks like us to help build this for years to come. There has to be a foundation built. There has to be a system built, just like with basketball and AAU [Amateur Athletic Union]. I remember when I was a kid, AAU was like at the YMCA. Now it’s a massive industry. So, it took someone to say, ‘OK, we can build this for these kids, and build a pipeline for colleges, professionals, all that stuff.’ So it’s going to take folks like us [the organizers of ImmerseCon], people around the country, people in Richmond, to start building that foundation for esports … and I am really keen on building that foundation here in Richmond.”

Hurt says last year’s Esports Championship was a success, with most participants commuting to the live competition from within Virginia, but he notes some players did travel from outside of the commonwealth to join in. Building upon that success, this year’s championship will host bouts in titles including Call of Duty, Mario Kart 8, Rocket League, Street Fighter 6, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Tekken 8. Participants can enter a maximum of two game tournaments, and winners will receive a trophy and prize money. A $55 ticket grants two-day admission to ImmerseCon, registration in two games and access to the Cyber Dungeon Challenge (a mobile app scavenger hunt). Anyone can register as the championship is open to the public and players of all skill levels.

For those who are not looking to participate in tournament gaming, spectating is welcome, and ImmerseCon also offers multiple activities and demonstrations throughout the weekend including robotics demonstrations, tabletop gaming, a retro arcade exhibit, and meet-and-greets with pros in a variety of STEM fields. Jeramy Moore, event producer and media director, says about ImmerseCon, “It’s really four things: a celebration of immersive experiences, a place to inspire people into STEM jobs, a way to bring communities together, and really just a way to connect the entire region around those things.”

ImmerseCon runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 30 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 31 (VIP access begins at 10 a.m. both days). Ticket options are $20 to $85.

With public events such as the RVA Esports Championship gaining momentum in the area, esports at the college level is growing, too. Richard Bland College, located in Prince George County, officially launched an esports team in 2024 and provides a facility with gaming equipment for its student participants inside the campus’ new Academic Innovation Center. Cameron Mewhirter, the esports coordinator and head coach, says the college sought to offer the program to boost student engagement and to expand the available curriculum.

“Esports itself, especially in the collegiate space, is growing every single year across the United States and across different countries,” Mewhirter says. “I took a trip over to Ireland, and in Northern Ireland there was a school that had an esports program, and it was really nice to basically experience what internationally college students do compared to the U.S. When it comes to having an esports program, and esports overall, it’s really such an amazing thing to think of when you think, ‘Oh, how much is this worth in terms of like monetarily?’ It’s a multimillion-, possibly multibillion-dollar industry.”

Michele King, director of the Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Hampden-Sydney College near Farmville, echoes that statistic. “Esports is a $25 billion industry. It’s bigger than music and Hollywood combined, but still people don’t know about it,” King says, adding, “but somebody’s buying video games; somebody’s playing these video games; there’s these tournaments going on; there are events like ImmerseCon; there’s all of these things going on. Millions and billions of dollars are being put into this.”

A lifelong gamer and former professor at William & Mary in Williamsburg, King established William & Mary’s esports program. It’s something she’s currently working to grow at Hampden-Sydney after being approached earlier this year by students who were interested in building a program at the college. 

“I said, you came to the right place, entrepreneurship and innovation,” King says. “So, I guide them and show them how to start something, and it’s beautiful, because no matter where you go, game and play is organic, and we just are going to tap into that community that’s already here and what I like to do is ground it in wellness and wrap it up in academics.” 

King is working with the students to create the program, so they can learn the skills needed to get a program off the ground floor whether it’s within the esports industry or other career fields. And as a parent herself, she also wants to be sure that students can incorporate gaming in a healthy manner.

“I used to be that parent, like, ‘get off the computer,’ you know all that, ‘go outside, touch grass,’” she says with a laugh. “But what I found was I had to pause, and I did some research, and I said, ‘OK, wait a minute, they’re going to do this anyway, they’re going to game anyway, so, let’s meet them where they are.’ And so, I just reframed the way I looked at it.” King made gaming part of her son’s regular homework routine. “Because gaming, if you think about it, it’s communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, it’s time management, it’s all of those things,” she says. “And if they’re going to do it anyway, let’s show them how to do it well, because anything can be an addiction. We know that, right, anything can be. But if we give them the skillset early on, they can thrive. They can still have this passion and energy. And some of them turn it into a career.”

Jill Anderson, an IT instructor at Brightpoint Community College in Chesterfield, helped to establish an esports club at the institution after noticing that there was a community that wasn’t being served. Not a gamer herself, in teaching IT classes, she was surrounded by students who were either interested or already participating in esports. After working to receive approval, the club is entering its second year in operation this fall.

Anderson notes that the current surge in esports participation is also partly fueled by the transition of the general population to online interactions during the height of the pandemic. “I think the esport gamers, they’ve always kind of been their own group of people, and they’ve been online, and they have friends online and building communities,” Anderson says. “So, this wasn’t really anything new for the esport [participants]. I think it’s more common for everybody to have more of an online community now, so I think it’s just more accepted and a little bit more understood.”

Lacking a dedicated gaming facility, Brightpoint’s club members meet for in-person huddles weekly and they practice and communicate online. Anderson says the goal is to eventually open labs on both of Brightpoint’s campuses for students to use.

Similarly, Virginia Commonwealth University’s esports club largely meets online as the institution currently does not offer a dedicated gaming room. However, the digital gatherings do offer some flexibility in establishing a schedule based on each gaming team captain’s decision. For instance, the Call of Duty gamers may meet online to practice weekly while the Valorant players might choose to get together daily, and this can be modified as tournament dates approach. David “Deekay” Kapaku is the current student president of the club, and he says, “I want to let things run, like ‘You guys figure that out, you just let me know where you need help with in terms of getting into [game competitions] or making sure people are staying on track, making sure that no one’s causing any problems,’ just being a liaison.”

In addition to entering collegiate tournaments, VCU club members also organize events including an annual charity tournament inviting other colleges to participate and raise funds for various causes and nonprofit organizations. It’s that socialization aspect (both online and in person) that first drew Erixx Phu, the club’s current vice president, to the group. Not a gamer, they initially joined when they were new to VCU and at a time when COVID-19 made it difficult to socialize. “I was really shy, so esports was a really easy way for me to talk to people, because I find it easier just to talk to people I don’t know online first before I meet them,” Phu says.

The growth of the esports industry is not lost on Phu and Kapaku, who have taken notice of the current infrastructure being built and college participation and programming that are gaining more traction. The hope is to eventually receive more funding, establish an official esports program and obtain more involvement from VCU.

“I think one of the biggest things that we’ve got to do is just make sure that there’s an active community, active gaming community,” Kapaku says. “What I want from VCU is, ‘Hey, I want you to make sure you support these kids that have a passion to play video games. I want you to make sure that you can create a space for them to be able to succeed in that. I would love to see a VCU student one day, maybe go play on the international stage for these video games. I want to see success just from everywhere, just generally. And I want to see VCU be able to support that.”

Ultimately, that’s the goal for all of the esports programs and events that are gaining momentum within Virginia: to continue that growth and become cultivators of lifelong skills and community builders. Andrew Gnux, the operations manager for ImmerseCon, says, “The United States is actually behind in esports compared to other countries like South Korea, China, there’s those other countries that have built esports ecosystems 5 or 10 years ago. And we’re just now starting to figure out our system here in the U.S. So, there is a lot of potential to go overseas, to compete, to work for companies, work for esports teams overseas, and things like that. So, there’s a lot of potential for sure.”

For the future of esports, the next stage is an open screen.