How to surpass students’ esports expectations

Worldwide interest in competitive online computer gaming, commonly known as esports, is growing at an unprecedented pace. According to a gaming industry analytics firm, global revenues are expected to reach $1.1 billion, with almost 3 billion people playing this year worldwide. And in a year in which social distancing is the norm, it’s very likely those numbers will rise. 

The next generation of students, many of whom are avid gamers, fuels the growth in esports. Leaders at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, have recognized this. They also see the benefits of esports, which, like traditional sports, include instilling players with discipline, preparation, strategic thinking and teamwork. That’s why they’ve launched a varsity esports program and built a state-of-the-art esports arena.

That esports arena must have a reliable network that makes online gaming possible, and Joseph Longo, executive director in charge of infrastructure and enterprise systems at St. Mary’s University, partnered with Spectrum Business to make it a reality. Here, I talk with Longo on why esports matter, what network technology he needs to make esports possible, and why he chose Spectrum Business.
 

Justin Niebel: Why is this esports arena so important to the school?

Joseph Longo: There are so many reasons I think this esports arena is so important to St. Mary’s. For starters, it’s really going to help bring our community together. The arena will attract a new group of students, and assist with both student retention and development, because it will give the students more things to do on campus. And, it ultimately puts us in a better place to offer our students, both current and prospective, the best possible college experience.
 

JN: What network technology do you need to make this a reality?

JL: We need reliable connectivity — without it, gaming doesn't happen. Connectivity is the players’ soccer field. It’s their basketball court. Our current connection on campus has plenty of throughput and bandwidth. But when it comes to gaming, throughput and bandwidth are not as important as latency and jitter. For the arena, we needed a dedicated circuit, separate from our campus network. That way, the only traffic going across the arena network will be the gaming traffic. This will really minimize latency and offer a smooth and seamless gaming experience for our students. And Spectrum Business has delivered the connectivity we need to achieve this.
 

JN: Why did you choose Spectrum Business?

JL: We were already using SpectrumU, a video streaming service from Spectrum Business for college students, and it really caught on. It’s one of those things where the only complaint we’ve heard is: “How come we didn’t offer it sooner?”

So, when we were planning for this esports arena project, going with Spectrum Business just made sense. We wanted to keep things as simple as possible. The beauty of working with them is it allowed us to implement a Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI) service where the only traffic is for our gaming group. That will enable the student athletes to stream their games without interruption.

But the reason we partnered with them goes way beyond the technology — the level of support we get from Spectrum Business and their commitment to our success is incredible. They have a deep understanding of higher education and focus not only what’s going to meet our needs right now, but also what we’re going to need to be successful in the future.

Spectrum Business is definitely putting us in a place that we didn't imagine being in — and that's very exciting.