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Smash the Competition: Support our Student-Competitors

$575

11%

Raised toward our $5,000 Goal
9 Donors

Project has ended

Project ended on May 30, at 12:05 AM CDT

Project Owners

Stream-a-Thon 2025

May 23, 2025

Our 2025 Stream-a-Thon is live now! Join us on Twitch tonight until 10 p.m. as we play casual games with viewers, varsity players, esports staff and donors, interact with the audience, highlight some of our graduates and share some fun surprises!

Smash the Competition: Update #1 and Streamathon Reveal

May 15, 2025

Hello everyone and welcome to the NIU Esports 2025 crowdfunding campaign, Smash the Competition!

This past week was certainly a memorable one for our program! In addition to having 6+ players graduate over the weekend, our Overwatch 2 team won the NECC Division 6 National title on Friday evening! Check out the winning moments in the linked video (warning: some players may have been caught up in the excitement, so viewer discretion is advised regarding language). We'll be adding their trophy to our trophy case and plan to hang a banner in their honor.

On Saturday, our Rocket League team decided to get in on the action by winning the Midwest Collegiate Rocket League Season 2 LAN! Despite two of the players on NIU Red attending graduation on LAN day, Coach Alex Barowski and the team persevered, spending the last two weeks determining the best combination of Red and Black roster players to represent the program. In the end they were able to get enough practice to work together, attend the event of their own volition and win the entire event.

With so much success across the program, it's an important reminder that all of this is made possible through the support of generous individuals throughout our various campaigns. As we mentioned in the project description, opportunities for additional students to be involved and opportunities to have unique experiences like travelling to LAN help bring students to NIU and help keep them at NIU throughout their educational journey. That's why we're excited to announce our Senior Highlights series! Starting on Monday, we'll be highlighting one of our graduates and their story of how participating in the NIU Esports program helped guide them to graduation. Keep an eye on all of NIU Esports social media channels to hear the stories of these recent graduates and continue to support the campaign so that we can provide these unique opportunities to even more students! So far we've raised $250 towards our $5000 goal, so we've still got a ways to go.

If you want to stay involved with the campaign and hear even more stories of our students, join us on Friday, May 23rd from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at our Twitch Channel for our 6-hour Streamathon to benefit the campaign. We'll be highlighting a number of our players and interns, playing casual games with contributors to the campaign, and making some special reveals about what's in store for NIU Esports in the 2025-26 academic year. You won't want to miss it!

We'll be back with more updates soon!

Levels

Choose a giving level

$25

Grey - Common

Just like the loot in some of our favorite video games, a "common"-tier gift is an essential foundation!

Contribute $25

$50

Green - Uncommon

A step above "common"-tier loot, the "uncommon"-tier is another important piece in the foundation!

Contribute $50

$100

Blue - Rare

For gamers, rare loot is something received after dedicating some time to the game. For our campaign, every rare donation will provide enough to help fund a student's textbooks for the semester!

Contribute $100

$250

Purple - Epic

Now this is something you don't see everyday in games! Every epic donation will provide enough to the fund that a student could fund their meal plan for the semester!

Contribute $250

$500

Orange - Legendary

Legendary loot, one of the hardest to obtain. In most games this loot drops after defeating bosses or completing challenging raids. For our campaign, every legendary donation will help provide enough support to fund a student's full scholarship!

Contribute $500

$1,000

Gold - Mythic

In games, Mythic loot is often the most difficult to find; in our campaign, mythic donations will fund TWO student's scholarship for the full year!

Contribute $1,000