With the recent announcement of a new eSports Training Center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies (ITESM) , Guadalajara Campus, there is much speculation about the future of this new sports modality in Mexico.
The initiative to promote eSports in Mexico has mostly come from universities, though it is an ever growing market that has gained the interest of audiences, players, and sponsors.
With an initial investment of USD$80 thousand given by DELL , Tec Guadalajara will begin the construction of the eSports training center that will be inaugurated in August, at the beginning of the new school year. Moreover, the campus will allocate MXN$2 million for this project.
Since 2018, the Monterrey Institute of Technology has created and developed multiple tournaments to promote eSports. Their first event was called Inter Tec and was exclusive for Tec students throughout the country. The second was the National eSports Championship, which featured the participation of 18 universities belonging to the National Students Sports Commission from Private Institutions (CONADEIP).
At the last tournament, the Monterrey campus was declared winner after defeating its Chihuahua counterpart in a League of Legends (LoL) match. To this date, LoL has been the only videogame featured in national competitions, though more games will surely be added in coming years.
Earlier this year, Mexico created its official eSports federation (FEMES) endorsed by the National Sports Commission (CONADE) .
FEMES aims to create a team to represent Mexico in some of the most important eSports competitions in the world while developing tournaments in the country.
In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL , Jorge Lozano, Sports director of Tec de Monterrey , western region, assured that they would seek a partnership with the FEMES as people’s interest in eSports continued to grow. “I understand that it’s a new federation, but we would like to introduce some more games in the campus to gain the attention of our students and then form alliances with other organizations,” he stated.
“This year, we hosted the national tournament and saw a very good response from our audiences. The crowd gets all excited and cheers for their favorite player. We would like to place ourselves at the forefront of this new sport,” Lozano concluded.
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