The Future of Sports is Esports

Description

Esports is considered the new college football by some. In this talk, we will take a look at some of the challenges of post-secondary esports, from the challenges of finding a home in schools, to some of the realities of incorporating esports in school infrastructure, including curricular and extra curricular activity.

Bios

Dr. Kris Alexander earned his PhD at Concordia University in the Department of Education in 2016. His thesis was entitled Video Games and Interactivity: The Semiotics of Multimedia in Instructional Design. His research focuses on video games, specifically, how video game design, and esports infrastructure provide models for developing active engagement within higher education. It also looks at the influence of video games on attitudes and capacities of individuals and communities of fans. Most recently, Dr. Alexander has undertaken research-creation in the area of esports, where he developed curriculum for video game engine architecture, and helped build esports infrastructure via 2 training facilities and eight collegiate esport teams. Further, Dr. Alexander is currently developing his own video game which will embody his research in audience engagement via interactivity. His work contributes to an understanding of why video games and esports are so captivating. Additionally, Dr. Alexander was formerly the #1 Canadian Lightseekers^™ player (Seasons 3 - 10), was formerly globally ranked #17th in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition and is a Twitch streamer known as “PhDigi”.

Geoffrey Lachapelle is a media creator, educator, and entrepreneur with a deep history of involvement in the video games industry. He has worked on live-to-tape web shows, game design projects, and full-length documentary. His most recent project, The Artists, is currently on CBC Gem and The Doc Channel and won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Online Series. His next series is seeking to highlight the history of esports internationally and in Canada. 

Mr. Lachapelle has spent his life working to build appreciation for video games and esports. Geoffrey is the Director of Operations for Humber College Esports, the first varsity-sports styled association of its kind. He is also the co-founder of IQ Esports, a company that seeks to leverage video games as a teaching tool for high school students and beyond. The objective of both institutions is to leverage the similarities in motivation and reward between sports and esports. 

Geoffrey is currently a lecturer at Humber College where he teaches in the Game Programming school. He is currently completing his Masters of Media production at Toronto Metropolitan University with an eye towards his PhD in the long-term. He seeks to contribute to a greater base of knowledge around video games and esports, particularly in the areas of broadcast, team organization, and competition. 

Additionally, Geoffrey is a competitive Magic: The Gathering player and former Nationals finalist and a globally ranked Halo 3 player. He streams on Twitch.tv under the handle “ProfessorGeoff”.

Robin Kang is a digital media and communications specialist for over 7 years in the non-profit sector. She has optimized several organizations’ online presence on social media platforms to boost brand awareness and communication objectives. She has spearheaded a range of online and offline advocacy campaigns for issues such as pay equity, cannabis, reproductive rights, and more under the Association for Ontario Midwives and for the Ontario Public Health Association. She is currently working with Toronto Metropolitan University's First Year Engineering Office as a Transition Facilitator to convert in-person programming materials into virtual formats for the upcoming semester as the current pandemic affected the organization's education delivery strategy. Outside of the digital media sphere, Robin has extensive experience in the development and execution of conferences and workshops. With the importance of relationship management, Robin served as a liaison between government representatives, health professionals, organizational partners, and community members to foster system change at the provincial level. Robin is currently pursuing the Master of Digital Media degree at Toronto Metropolitan University with a focus on esports.