The Unlikely Collaboration that led to the Creation of the University of Waterloo Interdisciplinary Network for Esports

Esports is a burgeoning field working to establish itself as a legitimate sport, industry, and academic discipline, that is worthy of investment and investigation. Games Institute researchers have often found academia’s slow pace at odds with the roaring highway of the rapidly advancing tech industry. Often, when researchers finally get their hands on a new piece of technology to tinker with, the next best thing has already been released. Esports is both rebellious and nebulous—on the surface it heavily relies on the latest gaming, streaming, and online training technology, while also contending with the booming “sports” side of the industry requiring logistics, operations, and staff support. More importantly, it’s revved up a new research agenda of academics from all diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

The esports fever hit the University of Waterloo just before the COVID-19 pandemic closures in 2019 and early 2020—students running Super Smash Bros. tournaments and the establishment of varsity and competitive teams through Waterloo’s Athletics and Recreation. Riding on the momentum, the undergraduate UW Esports Broadcasting Club was formed shortly after, the students streaming their coverage of various on-campus events via Twitch from the GI facility. It was once the Pandemic had finally caused a jam in “normal” day-to-day activities and replaced it with social distancing and online interactions, that long-time friends, colleagues, and GI members Greg Mittler (Athletics and Recreation) and Dr. Luke Potwarka (Recreation and Leisure Studies) began chatting about the potential for esports systems and supports on campus.

As they were exploring possibilities, in 2021, growing interest into this new and revolutionary world drew attention from the Government of Canada for its potential business possibilities, and the University of Waterloo started to take a serious look at how esports could be supported on an institutional level. UW began developing a partnership agreement with the University of Warwick, UK. Warwick was—and still is—treating esports seriously and had already made substantial progress, developing an esports centre and building a shiny new facility called “Fusion” to support it. During these establishing discussions formalizing research streams between the two institutions, the words “gaming” and “esports” were thrown around, resulting in GI Executive Director, Dr. Neil Randall, and Associate Director, Agata Antkiewicz, being drawn into the fold. With this blossoming relationship in the works, the Associate Director of Research International, Dr. Ian Rowlands, began reaching out to interested researchers on campus—including Mittler, Potwarka, and Randall, who he knew would be interested in Warwick’s esports successes.

Interdisciplinary research often challenges the status quo, creates novel approaches to existing problems, and often requires an unconventional approach to research itself. It takes a lot of work to bring like-minded individuals together, appreciating each other’s different disciplinary backgrounds, while also trying to find a common research language so that everyone’s expertise is respected. Interdisciplinary research within academia is almost always understood as collaboration between faculty researchers. An initiative co-directed by a university staff member and a professor is almost unheard of, and yet, that is exactly what Mittler and Potwarka have done.

For Mittler, who works in student program development in athletics, the entry point into the world of esports came during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I supported competitive clubs like Quidditch,” Mittler said. “Who compete in off-campus leagues, so I felt comfortable supporting new esports teams in off campus leagues.” Using UW’s model for competitive clubs, he began to coordinate the intercollegiate esports leagues.

Potwarka is Director of the Spectator Experience and Technology Laboratory (SEAT), where he examines the emotions of spectators as they engage with sports content, how it inspires them to participate in sports, and how they view their identities as spectators. Examining esports spectatorship was a natural expansion of his research agenda. Potwarka is especially interested in the high uptake of participation in esports; as he explains it, in traditional sports, few people spectating are actually participating in that sport themselves, in contrast “for something like League of Legends, its 80-90%.”

Having discovered mutual interest in esports, Mittler and Potwarka started exploring how other Universities develop their esports networking, training, teaching, and research initiatives. And so, Mittler—who had now secured a position as UW’s “Coordinator, Esports and Gaming”, the first of its kind at a Canadian university—visited Warwick along with seven students during the 2022 Commonwealth Games where esports were played alongside traditional sports for the first time. Here, the students had a chance to work with Warwick who had an exhibition during the Commonwealth Games, and this introduced many of them into what esports could be with the right support.

During this visit, Mittler realized Warwick’s approach to research and teaching is remarkably similar to their own, and even referred to Warwick as a sort of “bizzarro Waterloo” because of these similarities. It was an inspiring visit for him which showed him that – although Warwick was ahead of Waterloo when it came to mobilizing esports on campus – he and Potwarka had the same challenge to tackle: interdisciplinary collaboration and how to bring together people from different disciplines.

Inspired by their Warwick visit, Mittler and Potwarka began working with the Games Institute, Dr. Lili Liu (UW Dean of Health), Dr. Sheila Ager (former UW Dean of Arts), and UW Athletics to secure seed funding from UW’s Provost to launch an interdisciplinary network for esports on campus, a dedicated esports facility in the Physical Activities Complex (PAC), and other activities focused on esports and gaming.

Mittler began working with the University to build a space in PAC where students can participate in esports programming and a “living lab” for researchers to conduct studies and observe esports play: a core facility that would be inhabited, or used, at all times by different user groups from various disciplines. For instance, students interested in esports can use the technology to train and play, while also being participants that academics can readily access and observe for esports research.

Meanwhile, Potwarka focused on mobilizing research finding over 100 researchers at UW, from every Faculty, who had already published in the field of esports. This became the beginning of a community of practice that would bring staff, researchers, industry professionals, and students together to discuss their work in esports. Of the current 28 members, 10 are also GI members.

The University of Waterloo Interdisciplinary Network for Esports—known as UWIN Esports—with the mission to advance teaching, research, and student experience through esports was launched in August 2023. The network now employs thirty students in dynamic staff support roles such as communicators, storytellers, shout casters, broadcasters, event planners, graphic designers, typographers, marketers, operators, and coordinators—all positions integral to the esports industry. In fact, many of the students who received the Ontario-funded UW esports scholarship in 2023 became involved with the networking and varsity team.

UWIN is also developing an interdisciplinary cross-Faculty teaching course, which will position esports as a field of study with a tangible professional pipeline into the industry. The goal for the courses is to examine esports from a variety of pedagogical and theoretical lenses including critical disability studies, gender studies, among others.

Mittler and Potwarka are working hard to ensure the success of the network. Mittler is now managing multiple UW Varsity Esports Teams and is looking beyond campus for further expansion. As a current board member of Esports Canada and the newly established Waterloo Region Esports Commission, Mittler is working with the Region on how to develop esports programs on a Tri-City scale. The long-term goal is to ensure the sustainability of the network and create a core facility with equipment and space for everyone interested in esports to find community in the work that they do. The secured Provost seed funding will certainly help with the development of this space in PAC, but more importantly, Mittler and Potwarka want this space to go beyond the bounds of the University to holistically serve the Region.

In Canada, most students, athletes, and young professionals interested in esports move to big cities like Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver to launch their careers. In the true nature of Waterloo’s start-up culture, Mittler and Potwarka want to work with the Region to create an infrastructure of esports locally, bringing the benefits to Waterloo. They’ve already begun working with those organizing esports infrastructure at Conestoga College as well as local elementary and secondary schools.

This decision was very intentional, as the reality for all sports is the initial cost of entry for both varsity and professional training is high—and for some, insurmountable. Training can be rigorous, and sometimes one parent will sacrifice parts, if not their entire career, to keep up with the laborious monotony of training schedules, matches, and transportation while the other works to invest money into equipment, coaching fees, and travel. Although esports may appear to be more affordable, as there is a misconception of all events being virtual, but the even pricing for super-powered gaming computers are in the thousands of dollars. Mittler and Potwarka hope that this physical space on campus will be open to the public, but they also want to make sure the lab and its equipment has a mobile component to engage with elementary and secondary schools, which often lack resources to give children these opportunities. The conceptual framework for this is what Mittler and Potwarka call a “living lab.”

The word “lab” is understood and used variously by different disciplines. For some, it means a physical space where research is conducted, while for others, it is a group of like-minded researchers who periodically come together to collaborate, network, and support each other's work. For Mittler and Potwarka, a living lab combines those two frameworks—it is not just the physical space, but the movable equipment, people who are using the equipment, and people who are doing the research. It provides student experience, while also advancing research and providing the tools necessary to speed it up.

While the Provost funding has helped purchase some equipment, Mittler and Potwarka have also secured funding from the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc (RTO4). This support has enabled them to purchase additional equipment for the living lab structure.

A particularly vital component of kick-starting any interdisciplinary project and engaging people from so many disciplines and professional backgrounds is ensuring that the network’s goals and values are in alignment. Mittler and Potwarka understand the power of engaging students, academics, staff, and industry professionals together to enable a holistic study of esports. More so, they both believe that the crucial component here is ensuring that the network is an accessible and safe space. There are many problematic parts of the gaming world, games themselves, and the climate of the industry that acts as a barrier to entry for equity-deserving groups. Racism, harassment, and other systemic issues in the industry are all issues that need to be addressed in all future education and training programs.

The network works to address these issues, so they do not fester in the next generation of students coming into the esports and games industry—regardless of whether they are an athlete, industry professional, or support staff. They also want to create guidelines for building equitable communities—uplifting research that offers both positive and negative findings about the impact of esports and to incorporate those findings into the network’s structures and programs.

Mittler describes these challenges as “myth busting” saying he has had to repeatedly explain that “our top-tier players don’t just sit in their mom’s basement with Cheeto dust fingers slamming Red Bull.” The goal is to bring the multiple UW esports teams together as they currently don’t have a space to collaborate.

Esports presents opportunities for those interested in games, play, sport, and spectatorship, as well as interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration. The radical and boundary-pushing approach to esports by Mittler and Potwarka has already made waves at UW and within the Region. Their deep-rooted focus on making UWIN truly interdisciplinary has paid off in successfully engaging students, young and seasoned professionals, supportive staff, and researchers who respect each other’s perspectives and see the enormous value in learning from one another.

If you are interested in becoming involved with UWIN, check out their webpage where they list how to become part of their community of practice and engage in collaboration with other members of the network. The community of practice is open to anyone, and members can expect presentations like that of Jack Fenton’s “Esports, Older Adults, Mental Health, and Social Isolation” and Dr. Shinyong (Shawn) Jung’s “The Role of In-Person Events in Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Esports."