What’s it like to be an esports gamer? Sac State team shares love for video games at State Fair

When Fabian Gonzalez moved to Sacramento for college, he didn’t know anyone in the area. He struggled to find friends he could connect with, and had a hard time forcing himself into social situations — until he joined the Sacramento State esports team.

Now, he has teammates whom he talks to nearly every day, whether online for practice or after practice just to hang out. He said being on the team has helped him be more social and gain leadership and communication skills, and has given him some of his closest friends.

Gonzalez is one of many people who say they’ve found community through competitive gaming, and the rapid growth of the esports industry is reflected in the expansion of collegiate competitive gaming teams in recent years. The players practice together for hours nearly every day to prepare for tournaments like the ones held last week at the California State Fair, specializing in games like Rocket League and Overwatch and competing for cash prizes.

The state fair tournament, called the Bear Cup, is hosted by College Esports International and consisted of five days of in-person esports competitions. Both college and high school teams competed in all-day tournaments playing Rocket League, Valorant, League of Legends, Overwatch and Super Smash Bros. while their screens were live-streamed to an audience.

Gaming online but in person

The Bear Cup is one of a variety of events that collegiate teams participate in. Sacramento State teams’ main league is hosted by the National Esports Collegiate Conference, where they compete weekly against three other CSU and four UC schools, including UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz.

Fresno State players were familiar faces at the Bear Cup, too. “We shouldn’t play each other, something always goes wrong,” a Sac State coach joked Thursday as technical difficulties delayed the start of competition.

In-person events as visible as CESI’s Bear Cup are still rare for college players. All NECC matches are played online, according to former Sac State esports club president Sean Tirado, and teams have to seek out other opportunities to play on stage — Sac State’s Smash team, for example, competed in the 2,500-person Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for the Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup in May.

“We can win all the tournaments we want, but it won’t matter if no one knows about it,” Tirado said. “I think the biggest thing is getting the name of esports out there.”

Tirado said he appreciated that CESI brought esports to the state fair. In-person events have a level of prestige lacking in online play, Gonzalez said.

“In high school, you can do little online tournaments, but you have very little chance to make it onto an actual stage,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe it’s not the biggest crowd, but just being able to play on stage, feeling what it’s like to play in person with people, (is fun).”

“In-person tournaments are definitely different,” Guarienti said. “There is a different feel to it, playing all together next to each other. It’s better.”

Call of Duty professional player Dylan Hannon, who won the league’s $2.55 million-prize-pool championships in 2022 held at the 10,000-seat Galen Center in Los Angeles, said that in-person events deliver a greater payoff for the work that players put into getting better.

“We all play video games from our bedroom or wherever it may be, friend’s house, and that’s your comfort zone,” Hannon said. “Personally for me, when you get up on stage, it’s all business, and that is the big difference maker. The fact that you’re in front of a crowd, you’re trying to impress everyone you know around you and you’re trying to show the work you’ve put in the last months, weeks, days, it just adds that extra factor.”

Hannon recently threw a ceremonial opening pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays at a game in celebration of his transfer from the Los Angeles-based 100 Thieves team to the Toronto Ultra. He has made over $760,000 from competitive events, according to Liquipedia, a community-maintained wiki website dedicated to esports.

Most Sac State players don’t have serious ambitions of turning pro, but the larger prize pool of the Bear Cup – $3,000 for the winning team – was still a draw for Guarienti, who took a day off from work to play.

“It’s definitely worth it for me if I make a couple hundred bucks for winning,” Guarienti said. “(The cash prize) is something that plays into my decision-making of if I’m going to come or not.”

Social skills, transferable skills

Esports are a way to make video games more than “kids in the basement eating Cheetos,” according to CESI president Gordon Hinkle. All the players interviewed emphasized the community and social skills they gained from being involved in esports teams.

“It’s definitely helped me become more comfortable around people, speaking in front of an audience,” Tirado said. “Something like (this interview), I probably would have turned down (before), but speaking to people, I enjoy it now.”

Being on a college team has also pushed Gonzalez to think through his emotions when playing, he said, and learn to take leadership on his team.

“When you’re playing solo queue, you can say whatever you want to people in the chat,” Gonzalez said. “But when you’re playing with a team, it’s not only them in-game, but it’s also, how is that dynamic going to transfer to when you guys meet up in real life?”

The biggest transferable skill from being on the team was “just learning to deal with people,” Guarienti said — dealing with conflict resolution, offering constructive criticism without being too harsh.

That idea of being more aware of the culture that players are creating through the way they interact with other gamers online has also been a large part of the conversation surrounding women in esports, Gonzalez said. Nearly half of Americans who play video games are female, but only 5% of professional esports players are women and girls.

Players cited many reasons why this could be the case: some female players choose to become content creators, and live-stream their play on Twitch rather than pursuing a pro gaming career, and some of the women who play video games now may not have grown up gaming. All the players said the male-dominated culture likely also drove some away from competitive team gaming environments.

Hannon highlighted the Valorant VCT Game Changers team, created exclusively for female and nonbinary players. He said that this team has helped create opportunities for women to play games at a high-level, in a more welcoming environment.

“I’ll always revert back to saying Valorant does it perfectly,” Hannon said. “VCT ... gets just as many viewers as the Men’s Pro League. These girls are amazing skill-wise; the guys play a lot of Valorant, and some of them still can’t hang.”

Multiple players noted that their views on gaming, and the views of other people they’ve met, were heavily shaped by how they grew up. Although video games reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and ’80s, many of the people who played games then and are parents now have a very different perspective on gaming.

The Sacramento State players interviewed said that their parents have been fairly supportive of their choice to join the team — but they all said they feel lucky that’s the case.

“I have anxiety, so sometimes I’ll think about, what do my parents think about me doing this?” Gonzalez said. “But my parents haven’t shot me down, because they see that I’m passionate about it. I definitely think it’s a different story for other people.”

Hinkle said that as his three kids have fallen in love with gaming, he’s had to balance wanting to encourage them to do the things they’re passionate about, and wanting to ensure that they’re gaining social skills and are prepared for their futures offline.

“I have found as a parent that (I try to) encourage my kids to be organized, and to think about, if you’re going to play these games, what kind of skills are you going to learn that you can take into your future?” Hinkle said. “These young people are learning Discord, how to organize tournaments with their friends, they’re learning skill sets on social media, and these are things that companies look for when they’re looking to hire someone.”

Life after esports

Similar to other professional sports, pro gamers don’t tend to make the job a lifelong endeavor; many of them retire from the sport around the age of 25 or 30, and explore other opportunities for the future.

Hannon said that he hopes to play until around that age, but eventually wants to get the college experience he’s never had and earn a business degree to reenter the esports industry in a new capacity.

“I’m 23 right now, but say I’m 30 and I’m teaming with 18-year-olds,” Hannon said. “Our lives are vastly different. Once you grow up and you have other interests, sometimes you’re not gonna prioritize sitting there every day, all day playing games. After this, I would love to step into a new part of the industry and figure out what I can do in this space to help others.”

Meanwhile, Guarienti said that he doesn’t have any plans to try and go to “another level” of gaming. Instead, he’s interning in the city of Vacaville’s utilities department this summer, and wants to return to school to earn an environmental engineering master’s degree post-graduation.

Part of CESI’s mission, according to Hinkle, is to recognize that even as professional esports become mainstream, not every player is going to go pro — or even wants to. But Hinkle still believes the hours that players pour into gaming can benefit them as they go to college or into the workforce.

“We want to show that it’s not just kids in the basement eating Cheetos,” Hinkle said. “These kids practice, they take care of their bodies, they have to have good hand-eye coordination. So we talk about fitness, we talk about the educational side, we offer scholarships, we connect them to the tech company. We try to create internship opportunities for the students so that even if they don’t go pro, they may get a chance to get a job.”

The tournament wraps up Sunday, the last day of the State Fair, with a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competition that begins at noon at Building 5 on the Cal Expo grounds. The games also will be live streamed on Twitch.