(FINAL) OU Esports Club & Longhorn Gaming Program the 2nd Annual Red River Clash on Nov 7 & 8, 2020!

DISCLAIMER: Before we start this article please be aware that it is in active development and some variables may change. We will do our best to keep the timestamp current to any changes as well as push big changes to social media to bring awareness to this article. It will also evolve to a post game score board and repository for saved videos from the panels.

It’s that time of year for one of the biggest rivalries in the region to come back! You know OUTX and the Red River Rivalry but we march to our own drum as we let the iconic grudge match have its traditional 2nd week of October showcase. Now it’s time for these two campuses to face off in a different arena. Esports! 2020 will historically go down as the year of disruption, change, and controversy. However, gaming and esports gained massive acceleration because of the need for more virtual and socially-distanced programming. Luckily, for fans of gaming and esports this has been the norm since the late 90s and birth of online multiplayer gameplay. We’ll make this a physical event in the years to come, for now, it’s 100% virtual.

Nobody enjoys beating UT like Oklahoma and nobody enjoys beating OU like UT. In the spirit of good sportsmanship we are tapping into that healthy exchange of competition to build up our topic into the mainstream. As we see DFW become an epicenter for esports business for the globe and two of the largest universities push the agenda further, the timing is perfect to further boost our topic. In the mainstream, gaming and esports are often viewed only as entertainment and time sinks. However, this sport is a global one with League of Legends now representing the 3rd most watched organized entertainment sport after the NFL and NBA. Additionally, League of Legends “Worlds Finals” now sees viewership surpassing the NFL Super Bowl. This is no longer a niche industry as it’s trajectory puts it on course to match and surpass the NFL in revenue in just 6-7 years from now.

2020 marks the 2nd annual Red River Clash series with our friends (and enemies) over at The University of Texas at Austin affectionately known and branded as Longhorn Gaming. In 2019, we kicked off this new evolution of tradition into esports, hosting showcases in just two games, Overwatch and League of Legends. This year, further elevation at both campuses and more students involved than ever before sees us facing off in a two day event across seven(7) different games!! We’ll get to that schedule shortly, but first let’s talk about the significance of this event across much of higher education.

Now both of these campuses are not new into this topic at all. UT enjoys a long history in gaming and esports development through its Longhorn Gaming student organization and community with plenty of history as well as alumni in the industry. This topic represents a huge opportunity for UT to expand curriculum and research, create new jobs and fuel an entire movement with more institutional support.

In September 2020, the University of Oklahoma elevated it’s Esports Club into the new Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation department housed underneath Student Affairs with a roadmap aimed at creating a full-fledged department similar to athletics as a standalone entity. Everything you will see in this two day event are the results of the purest of grassroots energies over the course of several years to show that students are demanding this and not at just OU and UT but at over 200+ universities now across the US and Canada.

This year we’re expanding our broadcast from OU exclusively hosting the full production to collaborative production to ensure fluid programming and allow fans of these schools to tune in when they want to. While we are bringing two streams online we are also expanding community and informational programming too. If you think this is just about playing a video game? It’s not! We’re bringing three panels to kick off the Saturday and Sunday’s event and then to close it out at the end on Sunday.

Before we get into the program we are also using this culturally relevant gaming weekend to align our energies with the global fundraiser, “Extra Life”, which raises funds through gaming communities for the Children’s Miracle Network. This  allows us to provide engaging programming to those fans that want competitive energies to cheer as well as gaming community energies to watch and be a part of. Extra Life streams are usually 24 hour streams over the first weekend of November globally. The OU Esports Club has a deep foundational mission for philanthropic opportunities and has a huge emphasis on supporting our own backyard.

Now, take a look at the upcoming 2020 2nd Annual Red River Clash weekend programming below.