Could Collegiate Prove a Worthy Investment For The North American FGC?

Commercial esports is going through a significant downturn. Although the Fighting Games Community has been able to distance itself from the flashy Venture Capital money injections and the resulting bubble, there is no denying that competitive fighting games are part of the larger ecosystem in many ways.

Over the past year, we’ve seen multiple tournament organizers and teams lay off massive numbers of talented players, creators, and personnel as the whole industry compresses under the weight of unfulfilled expectations of years past.

But looking forward into the future, what are some ways the industry and community can look towards to ensure a better and more stable future? How can the FGC sow the seeds of the next generational talent today to reap a new harvest of MenaRDs, SonicFoxes, JWongs, and Hungryboxes?

Out the gate, we know this article might be more aimed at the North American audience, as collegiate competition is not as much of an institution in other parts of the world. But in NA, it's a massive deal. Collegiate varsity programs refer to colleges and university students competing on behalf of their schools at a state and national level.

The NCAA basketball tournament "March Madness" may be the most well-known collegiate-level competition. Though it's not the only one, football is almost universally the most-watched sport at the collegiate level.

For many Americans, their local college team is their home team, the team they have always rooted for. Colleges, in turn, have many sports for people to get attached to, from volleyball to hockey, football, soccer, basketball, swimming, etc. Over the decades, this has created an environment in the US and, to a lesser extent, Canada, where most people will become fans of these teams even well past their college years.

Today, collegiate esports are not on the same level as traditional sports but they are getting there. Organizations like the NJCAA and NACE have taken steps to integrate esports into college varsity programs and produce competition in the space. But why should the FGC care about all this? Well, let's touch on that next.

To be perfectly honest, there is not a crucial need for the FGC to jump into the Collegiate train this very second, but not taking a look at it, not trying to do something with that potential, is a missed opportunity.

For a very long time now, the vast majority of what composes the Fighting Games Community has been a volunteer force. You can probably ask any tournament organizers from one of your smaller locals if they earned any reasonable cash from any of their events, and the answer is probably going to be either pennies, none at all, or they are actually in the red.

Although these types of passion projects are fantastic and, at a small scale, are somewhat sustainable. When we're looking into the future that the fighting games community wants to be, not just what it is today, it's important to understand that sustainability and consistency are key factors.

For better or for worse, commercialized esports have not achieved the heights they were hyped up in the 2010s. The FGC as a whole was not deeply tied up in those ventures, but the echoes of those failures still resonate in the scene.

Collegiate Sports wouldn't be a one-size-fits-all solution, it wouldn't fix the underlying systematic issue within the fighting games Community. But it might provide another avenue for new talent, money, viewership, and people to get involved in the community.

Many features that make the Collegiate fit for the fighting games Community have existed in the scene for a very long time. We already have a very strong geographical tie into our regions. Take for example the classic Japan and United States split, or East Coast and West Coast, Europe, and many other regions. These distinctions allow the players within them to feel like they represent those places in major competitions. In turn, viewers from those regions feel represented when their players take to the stage.

The biggest example right now might be MenaRD, The highest profile Dominican Republic Street Fighter 6 player, not to mention the only two-time CPT winner, who has certainly put the entire Dominican Republic behind his back whenever he competes. That is something that Collegiate can also do, and at least for the US, do very well.

Another feature that already exists in the FGC is that many players go on to fulfill other high-paying roles within an industry and then give back to the fighting game community they grew up with.

One of the more high-profile examples here is Ludwig. A mainstream influencer and content creator. When he was younger, he fell in love with Super Smash Bros Melee, a game he still plays and creates events to this day. He would not have been able to achieve the same level of support for his project had he only focused on being a great player.

That is not to say great players can’t become important figures outside of their initial skills; Hungrybox is now a co-owner of Team Liquid, after all, but this is the exception, not the rule.

In the context of Collegiate, this is literally one of the core arguments as to why colleges put so much time and money into their competitions. They produce talented, educated young people who will remember their collegiate team and choose to give back either in donations or networking if they end up being a highly influential individual in key industries.

Finally, folks, we are not getting any younger. There is a batch of talented young American players today who are winning majors, but most are just over their college age. Sure, there is a generational talent like SonicFox, whose career already spans a decade and, at the very least, will go on for another two. But there is only one SonicFox. There is only one Justin Wong.

The next great generation of American talent is here already, and it's watching these events and looking up to the existing top players. Still, it also realizes, correctly, that the path to being a full-time professional player is not easy. What if we could instead offer a path to a skilled profession with some high-level gaming on the side, across their 18th to 22nd birthdays?

What if, during those four years, we could see players start, develop, and eventually win majors in a theoretical Street Fighter 7, or Tekken 10 going from the games’ release to the later years of its support? It might just be worth doing. So how do we do it?

The truth is that these institutions are very slow-moving. Any change we might see in the near future is only because other people have already been working for years to get esports programs greenlit in colleges across the US, but it's happening.

There are existing sports programs that have opened up to esport competition, like the NJCAA or National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes Super Smash Bros Ultimate among their covered titles and has been ongoing for more or less the past three years. Another more single-focused organization is the National Association of Collegiate Esports, NACE for short. Which also features Smash in their list of supported games.

You may have already noticed a trend: no Tekken, Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat. You may think it's due to violence, but NACE, for example, also features Call of Duty and Counter-Strike. There have been a few sporadic events featuring Street Fighter at this level, but nothing that is ongoing.

So what can be done? Well, if you are in college right now, see if you have a varsity esport program already. If you host an FGC local near a college already, see if there is any interest from them to partner up.

Check out your local colleges; even if you are well past that part of your life, something might be coming up, something worth your attention or even your time if you feel inclined to volunteer.