University of Hawai’i at Manoa Esports Program Recognized at Men’s Basketball Game

A few weeks ago, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Esports program was recognized for being named the Best Collegiate Program of the Year at the 2022 Esports Awards. Over 30 varsity players were honored in front of a crowd of 4,000 people at the Men’s Basketball game in the Stan Sheriff Athletic Stadium.

UH Manoa’s Esports program, also referred to as UH Esports, has over 100 players that represent the school, competing in a variety of different games. Apart from competitive gaming, the UH Esports community is continuously growing, with an online Discord community of over 1,500 members. The program also has its own space, referred to as the iLab, which has multiple rows of high-tech computers where all students can come in and play, relax, and hang out with friends. 

“The vision in creating UH Esports ultimately has been to create a program that allows students to interface with the broader video game and Esports industry. So far we have knocked it out of the park in some respects,” says UH Esports Program Director Nyle Sky Kauweloa. “We now have worked with the Overwatch League, Activision Blizzard, and Gen. G in South Korea…  Can we get students to meet, talk with, sit down, form relationships and bonds with the broader video game industry? If we’re able to do that, to me that is the goal overall.” Kauweloa was nominated for the Collegiate Esports Ambassador of the Year award and was one of the top 10 finalists. He has been running UH Esports since its founding in 2019.

UH Esports was in the top 10 running finalists for the Esports Awards’ 2023 Best Collegiate Program of the Year, making this the third year that the program ranks in the top 10. 

UH Esports has an exciting lineup of events and tournaments lined up for the year of 2024. “We are going to go to an invitational in January held by Vanta and sponsored by Zippy’s to play against teams from the mainland. We have Michigan State University and Stony Brook, and that will really be exciting because we’ll have our Valorant team, Smash teams there and perhaps our Apex teams as well.” Shared Kauweloa. UH Esports also plans to participate in Kawaii Kon, a yearly convention for fans of anime, manga, and digital gaming culture. “We have our intercampus systems smash tournament at Kawaii Kon, … and we’re very excited to have seven of our campuses (take part) this year.” Finally, Kauweloa shared details on a collegiate MLBB tournament to take place at the UH Esports iLab. “We’ll be bringing in BYU Hawai’i and hopefully we’ll have the University of Guam. This will be the first ever Mobile Esports Tournament in Hawai’i.” 

ACM System provided initial funding and logistical support to start UH ESports. Founder and Director Chris Lee originally pitched the idea and funding to President David Lassner who recognized and firmly supported the opportunities for UH Esports at UH Mānoa and all of the UH campuses. UHEsports reports to the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Garrett Yoshimi. ACM System continues to provide major funds for UH Esports.

With multiple exciting events and opportunities coming up, UH Esports is definitely a program to watch. To keep up with news and updates, you can join the official UH Esports Discord server here.

By Kathryn Ivanov & Sydney Kim