Almost ten years have passed since Director Mike “Moog” Aguilar started his efforts towards what became the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Esports and Co-Curricular Innovation (ECCI), and that decade is best defined as a time of growth. Many new games were added to the available roster, and the focus was mostly on bolstering student involvement and proving that there is, in fact, “only one” that does so well at what we do.
However, with the passage of time comes one thing that can always be counted on: change. With this semester comes some of the largest changes in the department and a new focus on preparing for the long-term. In this article, we highlight some of the most impactful changes as we enter a new era of ECCI.
Starting off with a very impactful change for most students, the Lounge is now free for all OU students. The Lounge is ECCI’s dedicated spot on campus for any student to come in and game. It also hosts various events such as weekly Smash Bros. tournaments and Chess in-houses.
The price of the VIP packages has gone down accordingly, from $140 last year to its current price of $50 ($100 for VIP+), and its operational hours have been expanded to stay open until 11 or 12 p.m. most nights (8 p.m. on Sundays), allowing better accommodation for students who wish to use the space.
The Gaming Club is not the only side of ECCI to receive major operational changes, though. In the 2025-2026 academic year, OU Esports reached a peak of 17 competitive titles, with many of them having separate “A” and “B” teams.
Over the summer of 2026, Aguilar made the executive decision to slim down our rosters, leaving Chess, Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, Marvel Rivals, Mario Kart, Rainbow 6 Siege, Rocket League, and simulation sports/racing as the surviving competitive teams, with only Chess, Mario Kart, and Marvel Rivals still having a “B” Team.
Aguilar states that he ideally would have cut down to around five teams. According to him, even cutting down to eight was a very difficult decision, but he felt more comfortable making it now that the lounge doesn’t have to charge students.
“This is the first time in those ten years [of development] where I have reduced the amount of student opportunities. But to make that decision… [now] you’ve gained a free facility seven days a week that’s open until 11 or 12 at night.”
So far, all of these changes have been readily available and broadcast to students, but there have been a few tweaks to the back-end of the organization. In the past, the Creative Content teams have been split between Marketing, Media & News and Production.
Starting this semester, however, Media has been moved to a new team titled “Dynamic Media,” which encompasses both Media, which handles pre-recorded content, and Production, which handles livestreaming. This change will encourage collaboration between the two disciplines and will likely lead to a higher focus on quality clips from streams and player interviews, especially when paired with the other big development change.
Beginning this semester, all students in the “development” side of ECCI were required to sign contracts. The competitive teams’ contracts are particularly noteworthy because there is now a requirement for the teams to have content produced about them (i.e. photos of team dinners) throughout the semester. So in addition to streams, you can now expect to see even more of your favorite teams and players through forms such as post-game interviews and impromptu videos of team-bonding events.
ECCI has experimented in the past with incentivising stronger efforts from its competitive teams, at one point having “report cards” with checkboxes for content produced and others, but starting this semester, all players in the competition teams have been enrolled in a class led by Competition Coordinator Joshua “Thumper” Riesenberg.
The class focuses on Media training, mental and physical training/health, brand building and understanding, and communication, according to Riesenberg. Passing the class with a 70 or higher is required to stay in ECCI.
“We absolutely have members… that just want to show up and play a game. That’s what the OU Gaming Club is for… [but] being in a development program is about helping us push that topic forward.”
— Mike Aguilar
After several years of ECCI maintaining the status quo, many may wonder why make these changes now, and especially so many drastic ones all at once?
According to Aguilar, the timing lined up perfectly. Through efforts from the Student Government Association, a stronger partnership with Price College, and more, the Department now has much more financial freedom to put OU back at the forefront of university esports.
“Ten years is… an overdue benchmark, not necessarily to make drastic changes but to make changes based on learned lessons,” Aguilar said. “These changes would have happened inevitably, or [the department] wouldn’t be at OU anymore.”
To help illuminate some of the changes made in the department, Aguilar had this to say:
“As a… consumer and contributor to gaming cultural cultivation and esports innovation and design, I encourage you to watch the 2019 TEDx talk I gave, which was a call to action to explore all corners of higher education as an opportunity to use gaming and esports topics… which in part builds stronger contributors to society.”
