The University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus recreation center and Esports club held a “Super Smash Showdown” Nintendo Switch tournament during the fall semester. When the showdown coordinators reached out to assistant professor of practice Alan Eno to see if there were students interested in broadcasting the event, Eno jumped at the chance.
In less than 24 hours, Eno had 14 students commit to broadcasting the Super Smash Showdown. Many of the students had taken the 1-credit pop-up course he co-taught with assistant professor of practice Kaci Richter last spring “Streaming and Broadcast Production for Esports.”
The group of students met twice before the tournament to prepare for each of the roles they had to fill throughout the day. Eno encouraged the students to try out the different roles so they could figure out what they like best.
“Esports is dominating the gaming space,” Eno said. “Having on-campus tournaments like this is a great way for students to learn about a type of broadcasting that’s going to become more and more prevalent.”
Eno and Richter will be co-teaching “Streaming and Broadcast Production for Esports'' again during the spring 2022 semester. The course will explore esports, teach skills for commentary and color on esports, how to use streaming hardware, how to plan for and stream live content, and how to manage sound mixing and audio commentary.
Students will also learn how to use the Sling Studio, a mobile production tool that allows events to be switched and live-streamed at remote locations and with limited resources.
Students will learn through hands-on workshops, learning production both in front of and behind the cameras, leading to a live-stream production of an esports competition similar to the Super Smash Showdown that was held this fall.
