Whitaker Center, Harrisburg University launch Pa.'s first collegiate eSports team

In August, Whitaker Center's new CEO, Ted Black, outlined a plan for eSports to be a building block of the science and arts center's future. Harrisburg University officials said they were excited to become a part of the plan.

On Wednesday, that future became a step closer to reality, with the Whitaker acting as an arena for Harrisburg University's eSports team.

Whitaker officials and representatives from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology held a joint press conference on Wednesday morning to announce their collaboration on a collegiate eSports program.

Harrisburg University recently became the first Mid-Atlantic University, and the 50th in the nation, to join the National Association of Collegiate eSports, according to the university. That makes it Pennsylvania's first team.

  • Watch a livestream of the press conference here.

The event was emceed by Kevin Knocke, vice president of eSports at ReKTGlobal, and attended by Michael Brooks, executive director of the National Association for Collegiate eSports.

Harrisburg's varsity team will be able to compete in games including "League of Legends," "Overwatch" and "Hearthstone." It will also offer competitive teams for NBA 2K, according to the university.

Whitaker's Black and Harrisburg University president Eric Darr both spoke at the conference. Black and Darr have previously shared plans for how their organizations can collaborate on eSports as a common area of interest.

Darr said Wednesday morning that eSports need to be considered a spectator sport -- and that's where the Whitaker Center as its eSports arena, with its 40-foot screen, comes in.

Sponsors in the partnership include HP, as part of its "campus of the future" initiative, and D&H Distributing, a Harrisburg-based, multibiliion-dollar company and technology distributor of IT and electronics. Both had representatives speak at the press conference Wednesday.

"Harrisburg University of Science and Technology isn't likely to become a football or basketball powerhouse, and HU is okay with that. We are, however, enthusiastic about our chances of becoming a major player in the world of collegiate eSports, in which teams face off over video games as spectators cheer them on," Harrisburg University says on its Twitch.tv channel.

The university announced earlier this month it is offering 15 "full-ride scholarships for students who compete on our varsity eSports teams."

The event included a demonstration of gamers playing using the Whitaker Center's giant screen.

"With respect to e-sports specifically, worldwide, it's an enormous business," said Terry Lehman, the new board chairman of Whitaker Center, told PennLive in August. "It's incredible. What can we do with that at Whitaker? I think there's a lot of different options. But we're not jumping in head-first, if you will." E-sports is video-game competition on a professional level, complete with prize money, sponsorships and even ESPN coverage.

Rather than games like soccer or football, they generally tend toward more fantastic genres: first-person shooters such as "Counter Strike," multiplayer online battle arena games such as "League of Legends" or real-time strategy games such as "StarCraft."

Gamers have a long history with amateur tournaments. But interest and audience for professional gaming competitions has risen in the past decade, particularly in South Korea and, more recently, the United States.

The rise of video services such as Twitch.tv has led to larger watching these video-game competitions, in addition to playing them. There are professional teams -- one such team includes a star player from Mechanicsburg -- and millions of viewers online.

"From HU's perspective, we've had for many years an interactive media program, which includes game design," Darr told PennLive in August. "Our students do projects around all of the pieces that ultimately show up in eSports. Connecting that to our academic programs makes an awful lot of sense."

Darr said the initiative will clearly combine entertainment and education.

"It's a whole different way of engaging students of any age, whether you're young or a bit more mature," he said. "So we're excited about the opportunity to partner with Whitaker Center on this brave new area."

The Whitaker Center was the brainchild of community leaders, business leaders, city planners, art associations and government officials in the late 1980s to develop a cultural plan for the region. After years of fundraising, ground was broken at Third and Market streets in Harrisburg in September 1997 for the $52.7 million public-private partnership of the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts.

It opened its doors Sept. 9, 1999.

In 2014, the center's theater closed for a few months for renovations to its previously-IMAX theater.

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