NEW YORK – Today, the BIG EAST and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conferences (MAAC) finalized broadcast and event plans for the 2021-22 EGFC MAAC-BIG EAST Challenge which will be held online on December 4th and January 28th. The Challenge will host 14 schools from the two athletic conferences competing head-to-head, one conference against the other. The matches for both events will be produced by the Electronic Gaming Federation, the governing body for Division I collegiate esports.

 

“Esports continue to grow nationally and certainly within the BIG EAST Conference”, said Chris Schneider, BIG EAST Executive Associate Commissioner for Sport Administration and Championships. “We are excited to continue our relationships with EGF and the MAAC in providing our esports programs with great competition.”

 

The first Challenge will begin with Rocket League on Saturday, December 4, with teams from each respective Conference competing against one another across 6 total matches with the Conference earning the most wins being crowned the Challenge Champion. The following month, the Conferences will meet once again in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on January 28.

 

Rocket League Challenge:

Saturday 12/4 on twitch.tv/officialEGF

6:30 PM ET – St. John’s University vs. Niagara University

7:15 PM ET – Butler University vs. Fairfield University

8:00 PM ET – Seton Hall University vs. Iona College

 

Saturday 12/4 on twitch.tv/BIGEASTesports

6:30 PM ET – DePaul University vs. Canisius College

7:15 PM ET – Xavier University vs. Siena College

8:00 PM ET – University of Connecticut vs. Marist College

 

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:

               Saturday 1/29 @ 12 PM ET on twitch.tv/officialEGF

Saturday 1/29 @ 12 PM ET on twitch.tv/BIGEASTesports

Actual match schedule will be released at a later date.

 

“As the MAAC continues to work to provide more opportunities for our esports players, we are excited to see a second year of the BIG EAST-MAAC Challenge,” said Kiernan Ensor, MAAC Esports Consultant.

 

The MAAC-BIG EAST Challenge follows the Fall 2021 Split of EGFC Season 3, hosting 35+ Division I colleges over 6 game titles. The season resumes in February with the start of the EGFC Season 3 Spring Split with an expected 50+ Division I colleges and universities will continue on the path to the national championship in April.

 

About the BIG EAST

The BIG EAST Conference is an association of 11 nationally prominent colleges and universities that foster healthy athletic competition, community service and the pursuit of excellence in academic environments.  The athletic programs of BIG EAST institutions provide national-caliber participation opportunities for more than 4,100 student-athletes on over 200 men’s and women’s teams in 22 sports.  Established in 1979 and headquartered in New York City, the BIG EAST’s members are located in eight of the country’s top 36 largest media markets and include Butler University, University of Connecticut, Creighton University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University and Xavier University.  For more information, visit www.bigeast.com.

 

About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:

With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 41st year of competition during the 2021-22 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.

 

ABOUT EGF

Founded in 2015, EGF is the national governing body for formalized collegiate D-I esports and high school level leagues. EGF’s youth, high school and D-I collegiate leagues are inspired by the best aspects of traditional sports to create opportunities for students and schools to engage and advance. For more information or to inquire about collegiate participation, please visit EGF.gg, follow @officialEGF on Twitter, Instagram and Twitch and Facebook or contact info@EGFederation.gg.

By: Jeremy Blye

Last week, I was given the opportunity to work with Lurie’s Children’s Hospital for their Game On event, and I was joined by some of the community as well. John Ucha and Joshua Zullo made the time to help support the another community that is near and dear to us. While at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, we had a lot of fun interacting with the patients and crew on the set, and we were able to volunteer for a great cause. Let’s take a look into what we were doing and what we were supporting.

 

 

If you do not know, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital hosts monthly events through their Extra Life Program that allows the patients within the building to interact with one another and any staff/volunteers that may be on site. In this Extra Life Game On event, Lurie’s set up a whole production set with gaming consoles. It was an internal “Twitch Stream” where patients could dial in and speak with all of the people on set. I say it is an internal stream since it was only streamed to people within Lurie’s due to HIPA restrictions. They also had a whole OBS production team behind the camera and games while we played. During this stream, patients had the ability to call in to win free gear, and on top of that they were able to talk to us.

 

 

 

Now that you have an idea of what went on during this event, I thought I would go over how the event went. First of all, this was one of the best volunteer events I have ever been to. It was a lot of fun getting to interact with people within the community, an awesome production cast, and patients around Lurie’s. Considering that we are basically at finals for this quarter, this event was a great way to get some time to just relax, have fun, and entertain those around me. On top of trying to entertain those watching the show, we had our fun messing around with the cast members.

 

I think the best part of this event was when the host got involved with our conversations. John, Josh, and I were joking around that the host opened up a bunch more when he realized we weren’t just annoying kids. When we started discussing older video games on set, the host realized we were not only annoying kids, we were knowledgeable gamers. Although we were poking fun at one another, I had a great time getting to be a part of this event. I am so glad to see people like this put on such amazing events. I am super excited to be able to get back into Lurie’s to help out with future events, and I hope they do the same for us!

 

By: Jeremy Blye

 

Welcome back to this glorious blog as we wind down for this quarter. So much has gone on within the past 2 months, it is awesome to see. Our community has been revived for in-person events, and our online presence is still continuing to boom! I just thought I would give a little bit of insight into what we have planned and what I think of it. Since we have been able to get back in person, I have been trying to help create events that are catered towards our community. We want to be able to see everyone who is a part of our community find a place within what has been created here at DePaul. So what exactly does this mean?

 

EVENTS! As many of you may know, we are hosting our Fall Finals Bash next Thursday (November 11th) from 1-4PM. Come swing by the gaming center to check out some games, some cool people (like ME!), and even some free food! How can you say no to gaming and free food? On top of this, we are hosting another series like the Summer Showdown. Instead of the previous summer name, we have the Snowy Showdown. At the moment, we have two events planned for this. There is the Rainbow Six Siege vs. VALORANT Showdown and a huge Rocket League tourney. The R6 vs. VAL Showdown will feature our competitive teams playing each other in the respective teams. The RL tourney will feature many different schools and even possibly a special guest team! The R6 vs. VAL is happening on 12/4 time TBD and the RL tourney is happening on 12/18 at 12PM. We will hopefully plan more Snowy Showdown series, but only time will be able to tell as far as that goes. On top of this, we do have C2E2 coming right around the corner. It is from December 10th-12th and we have a timeslot from 645PM-745PM on December 11th.

 

Even though it seems we are focusing a whole bunch into what we are offering over winter break, we will be starting a bunch of new events and activities for the community to do going into winter quarter. Now that we all have a grip into what this community looks like while we are in person, we figured we should really interact with all of the awesome people that are here! Be on the lookout into what we will be announcing and what we will try to do for the community as time passes.

 

You know this wouldn’t be a blog without me giving some form of insight from my end. I honestly have been loving what this community has been able to do and the people that I have been able to meet. By far the Esports community is the most unique community I have ever been a part of. It is so cool to see how there are very few biases around this community. People are here because they want to game or socialize. This is something I want to help boost, and I hope with some of the things we are planning, we can accomplish this. As I have said before, this is something that only time will be able to tell!