December 2021: Mainstage Gaming Newsletter
Mainstage Gaming Network publishes a monthly update to our community and we are eager to hear your feedback. Please email playnow@mainstagegn.com to share suggestions or request information and support@mainstagegn.com for support requests.
Summary / TL;DR:
Happy New Year!! Our team is excited to welcome everyone in our community to 2022! Last year has been a wild ride and we are ecstatic to share our growth and announce some of our exciting plans for 2022 ~
High School League
We are extremely excited to have reached over 1,000 high school students in 2021! With hundreds of teams and students competing against each other, we are proud to share we delivered on over $10,000 dollars in scholarships and direct placement of multiple students from high school directly to college teams in the MCEA through our pipeline!
We look forward to continuing our growth and targeting 100+ schools for our next year’s competition! Congrats to our grand champions, Nation Ford High School, for dominating in multiple titles during our Spring and Fall seasons.
MCEA
The collegiate esports space is full of brilliant, kind, and passionate gamers across the country. In launching the MCEA, we learned much about this space: competition styles, rulesets to implement, and the best ways to protect against foul play. Of course, it was a lot easier than most have experienced due to the amazing support we had from the leaders, captains, presidents, and coaches of over 16 universities to help organize our structure!
Next, we congratulate CHOWAN UNIVERSITY, CONVERSE COLLEGE, and CLEMSON UNIVERSITY as our MCEA Game Champions:
Chowan University:
1. Valorant Champion
Converse College:
1. Rocket League Champion
2. League of Legends Champion
Clemson University:
1. Super Smash Bros. Champion
2. Overwatch Champion
It is incredible to think that two of our champions from this season are first-year programs! Chowan and Converse both have new teams and excellent new coaches. These programs are ridiculously competitive and have been incredible to work with.
Clemson also stands out as their program is completely student lead and run by thousands of students across all game titles.
Looking to 2022, we expect to increase the MCEA’s regional competition by adding additional colleges in the Carolinas. We are also planning on broadening our divisions across new states on the East Coast! If you are interested in getting your college team or club involved, email us at playnow@mainstagegn.com!
SCRA
A few months ago, we announced that we pitched Mainstage Gaming Network to the South Carolina Research Authority to be voted on and accepted as a member company. We were approved and have received tremendous support from the SCRA and its Innovation Arm, SC Launch, Inc.
Last month we competed against 170+ other startups to be awarded an Acceleration Grant from the SCRA to, “assist a startup in achieving critical milestones to commercialization.” We are so proud to announce that we WON and have been approved to receive this grant money and prestigious honor from the SCRA! We are so thankful for the support from our state and the incredible mentors they have given us. Thank you, and cheers to 2022!
New to Mainstage in 2022
Middle School
Throughout our high school and collegiate seasons we have been approached by many middle schools about getting their students involved in some competition. Principals, parents, and district leaders are interested in traditional esport opportunities as well as semester-long ‘creative’ events that their students could collaborate on throughout the year. We are excited to begin our venture into the middle school space with gamer safety and inclusion as our top priorities!
Tournament Organization
2022 will also be exciting for our tournament organizing (TO) partners as well. Mainstage is working with select partners to hold events online, in card shops, and in-person (when safely possible) throughout the year! Expect to see lots of Halo, Smash Bros, Pokemon, and more with cash prizes, trophies, and hardware prizes/giveaways across the board. Partnering with TOs allows us to continue acting on our mission:
“Empower organizations to create communities through inclusive and accessible opportunities in gaming”
Sponsorships
We are excited to partner with some massive brands in 2022! Starting in Q1, we will be releasing our sponsor-partners for our community, high school, and collegiate events. Sponsor directly power our giveaways, prize pools, and scholarship fund. Here is a brief look at our sponsor-related data:
If you are interested in seeing our complete package and sponsorship opportunities, reach out to our Broadcast Director at: cody@mainstagegn.com
Mainstage Community
If you haven’t already, follow us on our socials or join our discord below! We are excited about what Lance has in store for the New Year!
- Giveaways: gaming gear, game passes, swag, crypto, skins, DLC, and more
- Tournaments: play with and against the Mainstage community
- Casting and Moderating: opportunities to hop on-stream with us for various esports matches
- Podcasts: Mainstage has been hosting guests and running AMAs in our Discord! Pro gamers, producers, tournament organizers, and much more -
We are so thankful for our team! And we are still growing! Follow us on LinkedIn to see job opportunities. Most immediately, we are looking for Streamers, High School Recruiters/Sales, and Competition Managers to work with organizations in different regions and support their gaming events and leagues.
Stay in Touch:
- Join our Discord
- Learn more: mainstagegaming.com
- Watch us on Twitch: twitch.tv/mainstagegn
- Mainstage Twitter: @Mainstage_GN
- Have an org interested in gaming? Get in touch: playnow@mainstagegn.com
