By Wyatt Crosher, Assistant Director of Communications for Student Affairs
Collegiate esports is much more than winning trophies. Understanding that is one of the many reasons that makes Ian Escalante the perfect hire for a brand new position at UNC Charlotte.
Escalante started as Charlotte’s first esports program director on Aug. 14. He comes to the University with nearly a decade in the esports field, starting as the founder of the esports board at Florida State University as a graduate student, and most recently spent three years as the University of Arizona’s director of esports.
“I am completely energized to be here.,” Escalante said. “It's going to be a blast and I’m happy to get started.”
In the program director position, Escalante will provide leadership and guidance for the Niner Esports club and student community along with their advisor. He will also provide direct support for the esports arena underway at the Popp Martin Student Union.
Escalante’s role leads campus efforts to develop a comprehensive esports experience for Charlotte students. That includes integrated academic experiences, research and innovation opportunities, career opportunities, and tournaments and gaming experiences.
It represents a fundamental shift to a more holistic view of collegiate esports, which was once driven by trophies and is now more centered on the student experience and engagement. Escalante has witnessed this shift firsthand as a student practitioner and as a professional in the field.
“When I first started, it was based only on winning, like the only way your esports program could be worth anything was if you won things,” Escalante said. “Now, there are programs like the one here that are seeing the value in esports beyond that. This is more than just playing a sport: It’s an entire ecosystem. This is a reason people come to a university and a reason people stay at a university. They have friends, purpose and all of these opportunities to facilitate their passion into a place where that's welcomed.”
The timing could not be better for Escalante and Charlotte.
“Coming to Charlotte early before the arena has launched, with the ability to do all of these things along with the University's mindset toward esports being for the benefit of the students, I am overwhelmingly excited,” Escalante said. “There will always be challenges, but they’re either things I’ve done before or that I can figure out.”
Adding the ‘E’ to Esports
Before entering the esports realm, Escalante’s upbringing was in more conventional sports like baseball and football.
“Growing up in Miami, there are no weather changes,” he said. “The only way you can tell what time of year it is was based on what sport you’re playing that season.”
But Escalante also played a lot of video games in his childhood, mainly sports-focused options that his friends also played. These games were a great way for Escalante to continue talking with his teammates even when sports weren’t actively being played.
That social connection element to video games would ultimately stick with Escalante throughout his esports career.
“It really solidified my love for playing games because of its unique way to keep people together,” Escalante said. “That's something that's proven true to this day. Life happens, people graduate, move, take other jobs, but I've been able to keep in touch with them and have those friendships extend because of video games.”
Through his undergraduate program at Florida International University, Escalante remained focused on the more typical sports profession. He earned a bachelor’s in recreation and sport management, then headed to Florida State to earn a master’s in the same sport management field. While there, an experience in an emerging sports class began Escalante’s official trek into esports.
“We were talking about basically every sport except for esports,” he said. “We talked about all different types of obscure sports, but we weren't talking about, to me, what was one of the biggest sports in the world.”
Escalante focused his final project for the class on esports. That led to him researching more into grassroots esports and how it worked at the collegiate and professional levels, which opened the door for him to become the founder and president of Florida State’s esports board in 2017.
By 2018, Escalante earned his first directorial position at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He made the move to Tucson for the Arizona position in November 2021, where he stayed for three years before arriving at Charlotte this August.
It’s a move that is closer to home for Escalante, and in an area that he believes holds a world of potential in esports.
“I'm getting the opportunity to work here in a place that has principles that I find really exciting,” Escalante said. “The southeast doesn't have the same level of prestige that the northeast or west coast has, but I don't think it has anything to do with talent. I think it has to do with being a little bit ahead organizationally, but I want to be one of the people that can be here and change that.”
‘The Heart of Gaming on Campus’
Design and construction of Charlotte’s approved design for a dedicated esports space in the student union is in progress, with anticipated completion in 2025. The space comes as the result of a $1.5 million allocation for an on-campus esports space by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2023.
Escalante said he is very excited about the space, as well as what it signifies for esports at the University overall.
“It's a great space located in a great place. It can truly be the heart of gaming on campus,” he said. “It is undeniable now that students love video games. This is in many ways a world that they will belong in forever. To have a location on campus where they can do that is just as important as a tailgate location or anything for them to pursue their passions and to find like-minded individuals.”
This sense of community and belonging is the same one that Escalante gravitated to in his youth, playing sports with his friends outdoors, then growing those friendships with games indoors. It’s the same focus that has kept his passion for esports through college, across the country and now here at Charlotte.
But regardless of his personal focus, Escalante is excited to help develop Niner Esports through the vision of the student body in as many ways as he can.
“The most interesting part about esports is that everybody has a different place that they're coming from with it,” Escalante said. “I'm sure that we can ask 100 students and they'll have 100 different things they want to see. But I'm here to try to do as much as I can to have as many different pathways for each of them to enjoy, and have a space for them to make it a reality.”