GRAND RAPIDS, September 18 — Ferris State University will host its first high school esports invitational tomorrow, bringing eight Michigan high school teams onto a college campus that teaches the business of competitive gaming, not just the playing of it. The event, called Mitten Mayhem, runs Saturday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) in Grand Rapids, at 17 Fountain St. NW, with the building entrance at Fountain Street and Division Avenue. Teams will play Super Smash Bros.
Ultimate in a double elimination, 3v3 high school crew battle format. Organizers picked that title on purpose.
Justin Summe, Ferris State’s director of esports, said Smash is not only one of the most popular titles at the high school level but also the one requiring the least hardware and physical space. Most other titles, he noted, would mean bringing or renting dozens of PCs. Here’s what it means in plain terms: a school with a few consoles and a spare room can field a team, which keeps the barrier to entry low.
Playing inside a college that teaches the industry
The eight-team field includes squads from Mona Shores, Byron Center, Rockford, Fremont and Oakridge, among others. Winners take home a trophy, with medals going to the first- and second-place teams. Ferris State fields a club esports team and offers a bachelor’s degree in Esports Production through Kendall’s School of Digital Media.
That program trains students to run the broadcasts, tournaments and live productions behind competitive gaming rather than only play in them. Ferris State Professional Esports Production majors will broadcast and produce Saturday’s tournament live at twitch.tv/ferrisesports.
Jon Moroney, a professor and chair of the Product Design Program at KCAD who helped organize the invitational, said the hope is to shine a light on art, design and digital media as an educational and career pathway. Students who get involved in esports tend to lean that direction, he said, and someone designs those characters, produces those events and programs those games. Think of it like a farm team for the production booth.
The high schoolers compete on stage; the college students run the cameras, the stream and the bracket.
Art, design and a citywide crossover
The timing is deliberate. Tech Week runs across Grand Rapids the same week, and ArtPrize opens the same day. Kendall’s second building next door will be open for the festival with a gallery opening.
Moroney called it a nice cross section between art, design and technology in the city of Grand Rapids, saying families can come down, watch the competition and walk around Grand Rapids the same afternoon. The School of Digital Media and the School of Design will staff information tables with faculty, and Ferris State Admissions staff will answer questions about applying.
KCAD’s Flex Lab, the college’s digital fabrication lab, will demonstrate technologies students use in art and design coursework. Organizers will set up a station where students who are not competing can try the game, and tours of the college will be available throughout the day. Students from the Professional Esports Production program and members of the Ferris State Esports Club will handle event setup, broadcast and tournament administration alongside Summe and Adam Anter, the program’s primary professor.
Summe is also bringing his Ferris State varsity Smash squad to play friendly matches against the high school competitors. He said he wants attendees to see what competitive esports can look like from a varsity athlete’s perspective and to get a look behind the curtain of the broadcasting team.
Esports is often thought of as a competitive pursuit taking place mostly online, he said, but Ferris State does everything it can to get out of the arena and to as many physically held events as it can. Summe added that an early season tournament is a great way to get some practice for the regular season and establish relationships with other regional schools.
High school esports, especially in Michigan, is growing quickly, he said, but to give these kids the most beneficial experience the games need to happen in person as much as possible. Michigan’s high school esports season starts in early fall, and several participating schools returned to class only after Labor Day.
For families weighing a Saturday trip, the practical upshot is a free look at a campus program most high schoolers have never seen up close — and a tournament that doubles as a recruiting window for the students who want to build the show rather than star in it.
