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Ball State's E-sports program takes on the 2021-2022 school year

The mousepad with the Cardinal ESports logo sits on a desk March 29, 2021, in the ESports Arena. The new ESports team is a member of the ESports Collegiate Conference which includes all 12 Mid-American Conference schools and Northwestern. Jacob Musselman, DN
The mousepad with the Cardinal ESports logo sits on a desk March 29, 2021, in the ESports Arena. The new ESports team is a member of the ESports Collegiate Conference which includes all 12 Mid-American Conference schools and Northwestern. Jacob Musselman, DN

MUNCIE, Ind. (NewsLink) -- The Ball State E-Sports program serves many purposes. As for academics, students can take esports production as their concentration. If not for academics, you can still be involved with esports by joining their varsity team where they compete nationally.

Dan Marino, the director of the e-sports program, said the school is pursuing esports in a variety of ways.

“Esports is competitive video games. And what we're doing here at Ball State is were fostering esports in three different mediums."

These three mediums include competitive, club, and curriculum. The competitive side of esports allows players to compete against other MAC schools and enhance their skills.

The club within esports has been around for around five years and continues to grow. The curriculum of esports not only allows students to play the game but have the opportunity to learn about esports production in depth.

Marino said he sees a successful future for the program.

“Well I think it’s a very bright future, and the different mediums that we have for esports; the competitive side is only going to continue to grow," Marino said. “In terms of the partnership, I think it's a very bright future for us because off-campus partnerships and showing students what’s possible outside of just playing the game in the industry, I think that’s very important."