On July 7, 2020, the Esports Research Network (ERN) held their second formalization meeting and with 50 founding members present online through Zoom, the statutes were ratified and the first official board members were voted for their first one year period. This process is the basis for the official registration of an international association, now based in Siegen, Germany. This is a great moment for the network, as it also marks the first anniversary of the first ERN workshop at ESL One Cologne in 2019.
Currently, the network consists of over 100 members worldwide, including Australia, the US, Colombia, Sweden, South Korea among many other countries. The goals of the network are to:
- Connect researchers around the world
- Achieve rigor and relevance in esports research
- Teach the next generation
- Foster diversity and inclusion in esports
- Create a link to practitioners
- Help other researchers to enter esports research
- Solve essential problems in a fitting way for esports and the digitized society
The first board of the association consists of:
- Tobias Scholz (University of Siegen, Germany) as Chairperson
- Brian McCauley (Jönköping University, Sweden) as Vice-Chairperson
- Maria Törhönen (Tampere University, Finland)
- Nico Besombes (University of Paris, France)
- Stephanie Orme (Emmanuel College, U.S.A.)
- Craig McNulty (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
- Julia Hiltscher (University of Bonn, Germany)
- Martin Maties (University of Augsburg, Germany)
We are thankful for everyone who participated in the foundation meeting and will work with us in the field of esports research. In the coming months, we hope to continue growing as a network, developing a code of conduct for the network and increasing the collaboration within the network and globally. We still have various practical issues to also deal with, including updating our web page and increasing our digital presence.
If you are interested in joining the network, please email us (board@esportsresearch.net). For more discussions and collaboration plans, please, join our discord channel: https://discord.gg/TSv5TAg
We look forward to a productive year and hopefully together as an international network we can contribute to the development of a more diverse, accepting and sustainable future for esports.