How do you keep students engaged when your campus has been disrupted by a worldwide pandemic? At the State University of New York (SUNY), the nation’s largest comprehensive system of higher education, the answer is esports.

Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson has announced a SUNY system-wide esports tournament. Not only will the tournament connect students from across the SUNY system, it will also help the #SUNYTogether Campaign, which provides valuable assistance for SUNY students who have been deeply affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. #SUNYTogether was launched as a multi-faceted fundraising effort to bolster the schools’ ongoing response to COVID-19. It’s not only a student emergency fund, it provides resources for medical research, personal protective equipment, and student scholarship.

“We saw an opportunity to bring SUNY colleges together in friendly competition during this time of social distancing and isolated learning,” Johnson said. “Every college within our system is invited to compete regardless of whether they have an esports team.”

Ten SUNY colleges already officially recognize varsity esports teams. Even more than that offer club or student-led options for competitive esports. SUNY Canton, home of the system’s first varsity esports program is heavily involved with the overall competition, coordinating prize money as well as the actual tournaments. Extreme helped SUNY Canton get started with esports, providing the network infrastructure for the championship team’s arena. This strong relationship continues as campuses in the SUNY system continue new endeavors with esports. So far 38 SUNY campuses have signed up for the tournament.

This three-week tournament kicks off Monday, April 27^th. Each college is invited to put forward two teams of students to compete in “Fortnite” by Epic Games, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” by Nintendo, and “Rocket League” by Psyonix. Competition is free and is entirely online.

Now for the good stuff, let’s get to the prizes!

• Extreme Networks and SUNY committed $20,000 in prizes
• Top prize for each game is $2,000 to be donated to the student emergency fund at the winners’ respective schools.
• The grand prize of $5,000 dollars will be given to the college with the best overall score.
• Players throughout the competition will be eligible for other prizes from Extreme Networks, Mountain Dew Game Fuel, and SUNY Canton.

 Want to get involved?

Registration for the SUNY Esports Chancellor Challenge will run until Friday, April 24.  Participants are invited to join the SUNY Discord Server for important communications. For more information and the full press release, click here.

Stay tuned for more updates on the competition!

To learn more about esports visit our resource center: Extreme Networks Esports Resource Center.