Help Esports at Indiana University compete Nationally

Hello everyone!

My name is George Gillman and I am the current standing president of Esports at Indiana University. A fully student-run club that competes in collegiate esports at the highest level. We hold teams in many of today's most popular games including Valorant, Rocket League, League of Legends and many more!

This past year alone we saw some of our biggest successes on some of the largest stages in the collegiate world! First, we became the "Kings" of Indiana as we traveled to Butler University in Indianapolis to compete with other Indiana colleges in the Battle For Indiana. Below I will list our placements for the three games that happened over this small weekend.

The next event we attended was held by the University of Kentucky for League of Legends. While traveling from Bloomington to Lexington in snowstorm-like conditions, we secured another LAN win. Beating out other Midwest teams like UKY, WKU, and UC.

Then in April, we found ourselves at a first-time event held in Columbus, Ohio at Ohio State! The first-ever Big Esports Conference LAN was held where we were able to send 2 of our 3 teams eligible to compete with other Big Ten teams. Once again, even against some of the largest universities in the country, we saw major success even missing part of a main roster.

That leads us to our last event of the 23/24 school year at what many refer to as "Nationals". Our Rocket League team and I hopped on a plane and flew to Texas for a multi-day event at the historic Esports Stadium in Arlington.

While the CECC provided a travel stipend for the players, many of you know plane tickets are not cheap. We still had to pay out of pocket for hotel stay, Uber travel to the venue, and food. The other 3 events were fully funded by college students because they have a passion for what they play.

What differentiates us from many other programs at Universities across the country is we are still a club. That means outside of the name "Esports at Indiana University" we don't get any assistance. Everything we have done has been student-driven and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. As collegiate esports has advanced and grown into a massive ecosystem, many of the major leagues we typically enter are no longer able to be sustained for free and have introduced a league fee. While the league fee may be as small as $500 and easy to budget into a supported program, clubs like ours struggle.

We love Esports and only see gaming growing from here but as we sit in limbo and wait for University recognition/support we are asking for community support. Not only are you helping players who practice with their team daily like a traditional sports team to continue with their passion. You are helping us continue to provide an opportunity for student staff to get valuable hands-on experience for when they graduate. We have staff solely dedicated to creating graphics, running our media, handling our finances. We have people who create events, broadcasting our matches and so much more than just play a video game. All of it valuable experience that employers will notice and ask about in their interviews that will help set them apart from the crowd.

The $2000 we are asking for will go directly to our 2 biggest league fee expenses listed below:

These two leagues will allow all of our teams (not just varsity) to compete with other programs across the country, at their respective skill levels!

If you are interested in donating we greatly appreciate it, if you cannot we still are grateful and appreciate the support we have been shown over the years by everyone. Thank you