Collegiate esports is evolving. Varsity programs continue to expand the resources they provide their students, student-run club teams remain a force to be reckoned with, and more and more students join up to compete in collegiate esports. After a successful first season of collegiate VALORANT, we are bringing all of Riot’s collegiate esports in North America into one spot with the help of GGTech, an eight-year partner of Riot who is already supporting collegiate esports in EMEA and Latin America.
The goal of this partnership is to be a one-stop-shop for all things college across College League of Legends, College VALORANT, the college club program, and additional programs like the CLoL Fall Warmup tournament. GGTech will be the official provider of our North American collegiate program for the next three years, beginning in the 2023-24 school year and the Riot Scholastic Association of America (RSAA) will remain closely involved with the operations, strategy, and direction of the college ecosystem.
“As we add more games and continue to grow our offerings, we wanted a partnership where we could bring the whole program under one roof,” said J.T. Vandenbree, Head of the RSAA. “We are looking forward to leveling up our game and building more collaboration with students and schools of all sizes, investments, and solo queue ranks.”
GGTech will be a foundational partner whose role will include seeking partnerships with other organizations and sponsors on behalf of the RSAA. GGTech have been working in the collegiate space for the last eight years developing UNIVERSITY Esports, which gives college students around the world the opportunity to engage in esports nationally and internationally.
“We’re delighted to be working with RSAA to help build on the success of Riot’s college programs,” said Josh Williams, Global Director of UNIVERSITY Esports at GGTech Entertainment. “We want to use our decade of global experience in collegiate esports and work with the community to create new and exciting experiences for all college students in North America.”
What’s Changing?
Not much! The College LoL and College VALORANT Season in North America will remain largely the same as previous years, including dates, formats, a live final event for both games, equal scholarship prizes as previous seasons, and the same overall goals of each competition. As usual, we will announce quality-of-life updates for both games as we approach the fall, and will specifically look to improve upon the first year’s format for College VALORANT.
The club program will continue to offer swag drops for special events like club activations, esports watch parties, and tournament prize support.
What About Third Parties / Community Guidelines?
We are not making changes to the scholastic community competition guidelines for either League of Legends or VALORANT as a result of this partnership. We still want to see third parties engaging in the scholastic space where we can’t directly support, and we encourage interested organizations to contact us for introductions to GGTech in the hopes of future collaboration. GGTech will have more resources to spend on third party relationships, and we’re excited to support future partnerships where they make sense for our goals.
GGTech will be looking to hire folks from the current CLOL and CVAL ecosystem to work in multiple roles focused on competition and community management. If you have experience and are interested in working in these areas, please email your resume to jobs@ggtech.us.
What’s Next?
The RSAA and GGTech will be hosting a series of open conversations in the CLOL, CVAL, and Club Officers’ Discord servers over the next few weeks to introduce the GGTech staff to the community, as well as hosting a roundtable Q&A specifically for university and ecosystem staff.