In recent years, the world of video games has undergone a remarkable transformation. What was once considered a pastime for a niche group of enthusiasts has now blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry.
A significant aspect of this transformation is the emergence of professional gamers as stars, captivating audiences on a global scale. As the popularity of esports continues to surge, many believe competitive gaming is on the cusp of becoming a mainstream sport.
In the realm of collegiate esports, the Vikings Gaming Club at Portland State stands strong as a rapidly evolving hub for gamers, offering a space for students to come together, compete, grow and forge friendships through video games.
Aaron Lindstedt—the co-president and design lead of the club—spoke on how much work he and the other officers of the club have put in since regrouping after the pandemic. “Over the past year and a half, two years-ish has been a bit of a reconstruction period of the club,” Lindstedt said. “I came on board last year with the club, and since then I’ve taken charge to get us to have in-person events and various things going throughout esports, as well as direct a rebrand of the club image.”
The club’s history stretches back several years, primarily focused on “League of Legends,” “but from what I understand that iteration of the club almost completely died out during COVID-19,” Lindstedt said.
The club has achieved a significant online presence with close to 500 members on their Discord server and over 300 members on PSU Connect—the official site for tracking PSU clubs.
“One of the things that I had noticed was that there’s not really any other gaming clubs on campus, and that led us to just kind of continually expand,” Lindstedt said. “That expansion positioned us to rebrand from only PC gaming to all kinds of gaming, and allowed us to better expand into the sector of collegiate esports.”
The club organized a successful “Super Smash Bros.” tournament, attracting over 80 participants—indicating the growth and vitality of the Portland “Smash Bros.” scene. Lidstedt was happy to be able to provide the space.
“That was really good for the Portland Smash scene, especially because the local scene around [Super] Smash Bros in Portland was not as active as you would expect it to be,” Lindstedt said. “It’s mostly a bunch of smaller tournaments with paid-entry fees. So we were able to host one of the largest free tournaments of 2023.”
Their upcoming event—Spawn Point: Smash Tournament and Costume Contest—is scheduled for Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. in the Smith Ballroom. It is set to be their biggest event yet. Collaborating with the tabletop gaming club Critical Miss, the event will feature board games, a large Super Smash Bros. tournament, casual video games such as “Mario Kart” and a costume contest to celebrate Halloween.
“We’ve got a few sponsors for an upcoming event as well, such as companies like [Micro-Star International]—a large computer part manufacturer—and Nexigo—which is a local tech company who’s going to be providing things like projectors for the event,” Lindstedt said. “Then, we’re also going to have some drinks from Red Bull there.”
Moving forward, they expect regular meet-ups. “Our plan is for our in-person events throughout this year to happen on Fridays,” Lindstedt said. “That’s kind of our goal. And then past that, we’re actually looking to do smaller biweekly tournaments.”
Vikings Gaming primarily focuses on two popular games: “Super Smash Bros.” and “Valorant.” “Smash Bros.” is a fan favorite—serving as a cornerstone for in-person events—while “Valorant” has become their flagship esports title.
The club boasts a full roster of 10 players competing in the Collegiate Valorant League—one of the largest collegiate esports tournaments. “We’re competing in the West division of the 2023 CVAL Fall Split,” Lindstedt said. “Currently there’s actually 130 other college teams signed up for that tournament. So it’s going to be a very large tournament circuit, where we’re going up against teams from universities that have fully funded esports programs, where their players have scholarships to play the game.”
“At the start of 2017, 40 collegiate esports programs began in North America, with over $4 million in college funding for esports,” according to research published in Loading: The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association. “A year later, nearly 200 schools have some type of varsity support for esports with $15 million of scholarships in the collegiate scene.”
What sets Vikings Gaming apart is that they are not a fully-funded esports program like some of their competitors. Fueled by a passion for the game, their players compete against universities with scholarships and resources dedicated to their esports programs. “It’s them versus us,” Lindstedt said. “[We’re] just a bunch of people who’ve banded together out of passion for wanting to compete.”
The average skill level of the Vikings Gaming’s “Valorant” team is within the top 6% of players worldwide. “Our lowest-ranked starters are all within the top 16% of ‘Valorant’ players in the world,” Lindstedt said. “And our highest-ranked starters are within the top 1% of the world.”
When not in person, their Discord server is an ever-present community hub. It allows students to reconnect with peers and engage in gaming-related activities without commuting back to campus after classes—a common scenario for a commuter campus such as PSU.
They also use the Discord server to meet up virtually. “Anyone is allowed to join, whether they’re a student or not,” Lindstedt said. “They just need to be in the Discord server to join it. For our public events, those events are fully open to the general public—not just students.”
Although they haven’t won any prize yet, the prospect of scholarships awarded as part of their victories is exciting.
Additionally, Vikings Gaming has ambitious plans to secure a dedicated gaming space on campus to provide students with a place to connect and play. This project is part of their vision to establish themselves as a central hub for the local gaming community, particularly in the absence of a similar resource on campus.
The club’s mission is to create a safe and inclusive space for students from all backgrounds. “I think [that] through what we’re doing, we’re actually achieving that,” Lindstedt said. “Video games are a nice kind of neutral-level playing field where anyone of any background can come together and cast aside anything that might be with them in real life… None of that is going to matter in a video game, and it’s very easy for people to just come together through that.”
Vikings Gaming has the potential to bring PSU’s commuter students together, creating a sense of community they might not otherwise experience.
With plans to expand their esports roster to include games like “Counter-Strike,” “Overwatch,” “Fortnite” and “Rainbow Six Siege,” Vikings Gaming seeks enthusiastic individuals to join the team managers as captains or to spearhead new teams. “We’re hoping to expand quite a bit over this year and the next one,” Lindstedt said. “With our biggest goal being to get some kind of deal for an on-campus gaming space underway by 2025.”
