THE FIRST COLLEGIATE ESPORTS FESTIVAL, SET FOR ATLANTA
STAMFORD, CT (March 8, 2022) – The Collegiate Sports Management Group (“CSMG”), an integrated sports and entertainment media company focused on esports and traditional sports in the new creator economy, announced today ESPORTSU has unveiled its plans for the Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup (“CECC”). In partnership with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, the NBA G League’s College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta Esports Alliance and Skillshot Media, CECC will take place May 6-8, 2022 at the iconic Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
CECC, the largest collegiate esports live event ever, will offer competitors, fans and brand partners an immersive festival experience including food trucks, live music, career fair, professional networking, Cosplay Costume Contest, interactive onsite activations, and of course, intense competition across Overwatch® (the Overwatch Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup), Rocket League, NBA 2K, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Valorant. In addition to its scheduled tournaments, esports athletes and fans alike will have the opportunity to participate in open-play tournaments and free-play gaming. ESPORTSU will be unveiling additional game titles in the coming weeks.
“CECC is dedicated solely to the development of collegiate esports and student athletes, which we believe are the workforce and talent of the future,” said Angela Bernhard Thomas, EVP of ESPORTSU at CSMG. “We will put students center stage to not only showcase their competitive skills, but through alliances and partnerships with other industry leaders, create an electric festival atmosphere to celebrate them and all things gaming and esports.”
Partnerships for the event include Atlanta Hawks, College Park Skyhawks, Twitch Student, Gamers Outreach, the*gameHERs, Cxmmunity, HBCU Esports, Atlanta FaZe, Atlanta Reign, Ghost Gaming, Esports Foundry, and Georgia Scholastic Esports Foundation.
“We are thrilled to work with ESPORTSU to bring the premier collegiate esports event to Atlanta,” said Todd Harris, Skillshot CEO and chair of the Atlanta Esports Alliance. “After two years of virtual events, the collegiate community deserves an in-person, over-the-top, arena celebration of esports competition and career development. We are thankful for our partners at the Hawks, ATL FaZe, Reign, Ghost and other amazing Georgia-based companies who are supporting these 64 qualifying college teams and the thousands of fans.”
Students from any 4-year or 2-year college or university across the country can earn their spot in Atlanta through a series of regional invitationals for a chance to be crowned the winner of the Commissioner’s Cup and various prizes. Eleven collegiate esports conference partners and more will be announced in the coming weeks. CECC event coverage will be streamed across the ESPORTSU Twitch channel and on ESTV, the first 24/7 live video channel dedicated to esports distributed globally to 60M+ households. For more information, visit https://collegiatesmg.com/cecc/.
“We are excited to join forces with the Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup for the largest esports event this city has ever seen,” said Hawks’ EVP, Chief Revenue Officer Andrew Saltzman. “We believe that this three-day showcase will provide the next generation of esports competitors many opportunities beyond the virtual playing field and provide them with a fun, memorable and highly competitive experience.”
The CECC 2021 event series showcased over 300 players and 64 esports teams and garnered over 28M impressions across all platforms, with over 2.4M minutes watched across Twitch and ESTV.
