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THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED OCTOBER 8, 2020

Overview

On September 1, 2020, the University of Oklahoma elevated our developments institutionally and this page will be purpose built to show our strategies do inspire other universities and share ideas openly. It will highlight our timeline and roadmap as well and celebrate our milestones on all fronts showing the cause and effect of our developmental approach. This landing page will evolve dramatically as we stage content to release about the Sooner story and journey.

Stay tuned!

What is OU Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation?

The Esports & Co-Curricular department is OU’s formal entry to institutionally supported esports development. It falls underneath Student Affairs and is in collaboration with Information Technology. It’s goals are to continue the path of the grassroots startup known as the OU Esports Club. This approach has kept students involved in the active development since it’s birth in 2017. It will take it’s preexisting energies and will elevate those roles from student lead passion to funded employee based workforce.

With the elevated state we will take the core functions in community engagement, competitive development, journalistic practicum and supercharge them further while also folding in academic research, curriculum, in strategic alignment of The University of Oklahoma’s overall mission. The first employee of this new department is Director Mike “Moog” Aguilar, who is the architect behind the initial spin-up of research and formalization with his initial proposal for development back in 2016. He has and continues to serve as the Lead Advisor for the OU Esports Club as he aligns the roadmap to full elevation alongside student leadership being mentored for future employment at OU and within the industry globally.

Mike "Moog" Aguilar, M.B.A.

Director, OU Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation

Mike, also referred to as "Moog", is a Technology Strategist that caters to the needs of the Honors College in tandem with centralized IT's efforts across OU's campus. He provides project management and business analysis that helps improve workflows in anything from daily routine based work to big initiatives for both the individual college as well as the university. Mike is a veteran service member, has worked for Apple, and is an active photographer of over 15 years of experience. Mike attributes much of his organizational and strategic abilities and successes to World of Warcraft. Managing a guild of over 150 people from all over the world converted him from an extremely introverted person into a very extroverted one. Through his 4 years managing this guild he also led raids during the initial WoW days through several expansions where 40 individuals were required to accomplish highly coordinated tasks through VoIP communication in real-time. Mike has been a gamer since the Atari days and can enjoy all genres when the timing is right. Mike's biggest passion is helping out where he finds opportunities to do so because he wants to not because he needs to. He has embraced his role as Lead Advisor 500% and is leading the charge for gamers and esports athletes within the walls of OU only as a precursor to helping uplift these industries across the state and region. He has a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology and a Masters of Business Administration. He delivered one of the first TED Talks on strategic esports development opportunities within higher education. Mike started research and development of the OU Esports Club in Fall 2016.

Mike “Moog” Aguilar, M.B.A.
Director of Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation
Lead Advisor of The OU Esports Club

What is The OU Esports Club?

Founded in 2017 as the Esports Association at The University, this heavily objective-oriented registered student organization was built to personify esports organizations in the pro-sector. Through intentional research in OU handbooks, policy guidelines, and coursework syllabi, the organization was built from the ground up to function as a department at OU on day 1. Because of that the further elevation of this orgs leadership, departments, mission, and focus will be almost untouched in the next chapter. It received it’s first elevation in November 2018, rebranding to the OU Esports Club, a competitive classified student org, under OU IT.

Student voices are the biggest asset to the success of this development and the September 1, 2020 university elevation. By empowering students, the org has created so many amazing stories and equity within it’s own community that it has become the largest student organization at OU pushing past 1.5K members at the time of elevation. The organization itself has 6 pillars or departments focused on creating pipelines for a large percentage of students as a feeder into the industry and extension of the university mission.

This organization creates programming for student and general public engagement, media & news for consumption, teams to compete on behalf of OU, and has a heavy focus on philanthropic energy raising funds and awareness for youth in Oklahoma while also offering summer camps for prospective athletes globally.

At the top of the organization during elevation is Jasmine Graves, one of the last original co-founders. Jasmine initially served as the director over what is now streaming entertainment and her organizational knowledge has earned her the presidential role over the entire org. Alongside her 10 member team, the OU Esports Club can execute quickly on multiple fronts with high standards. Make sure to click the leadership icon under her profile to see all the leadership faces and their stories.

Jasmine Graves

President, OU Esports Club

Jasmine is working towards her undergraduate degree in Management Information Systems. She started playing CD-ROM games when she was 5 years old and started playing League of Legends when she was 13. She got into esports when she started watching season 4 of League of Legends' NALCS. Currently, she enjoys playing games like Overwatch or CS:GO. She is excited for the growth of esports in her local community, even though she does not play competitively. She is involved with other clubs at OU, such as Women in Business Association and Spanish Club.

Jasmine Graves
President of The OU Esports Club

Management Information Systems
Class of 2021

What is Sooner Esports?

Sooner Esports, this website, is the journalistic practicum extension of the OU Esports Club student organization. It is hybrid official landing page of OU’s new department of Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation and media outlet. The purpose of this blog style website was to cultivate student journalist, content creators, and story-tellers to help personify the diverse cultures within gamer, geek, and nerd cultures. It is the home for the voice of Sooner gamers across campus.

Additionally, Sooner Esports represents the hub for all of our content and on top of our media & news team specifically, it also utilizes platforms like Twitch for live broadcast, production, and commentary of our official gameplay while also elevating influencer style streamers. Think of this as the media powerhouse showcasing the bigger picture of career opportunity in esports and done completely inside through the passion and drive of OU’s students and alumni.