By, Jake Stoup 

MONTEVALLO, Ala – What really goes on behind the scenes? Riley Harrison is a junior at the University of Montevallo, but that’s not all, he is also the head of the Montevallo Esports Production Team.

Riley directs the multiple esports broadcasts throughout the year, leading three to four broadcasts a week for the team.

Riley has been a member of the team since he started here at Montevallo but that’s not where he started his time working on esports productions. His interest didn’t start with broadcasting. but in tournament organization.

Riley was a tournament organizer for a game called Paladins and was hired to run the official tournaments, but since the community was small he also helped work the broadcasts for the games company, Hi-Rez.

When the tournaments were shut down during COVID he was hired by Hi-Rez as an official streamer for the company. This helped Riley gain his love for esports.

Montevallos Impact on Riley

As Montevallo is a smaller college, it lacks the numbers for him to have a team of production assistants, so Riley must work many broadcasts completely on his own. 

Montevallo has given Riley chances and the ability to do things with production no other college would have given him. “Montevallo has given me a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t end up here. I provide training, operational support, and creative and technical direction for the Montevallo Esports Broadcast Team, a team that I created and was the sole member of for my first year”

With the team here growing every semester, Riley has been focusing his time on teaching members of the team who are interested in how to run the team’s productions. 

Riley has been teaching people not only how to run the broadcasts but also how to commentate and spectate all the different games. This causes Riley’s already very busy schedule to be even more packed with him constantly having to teach new people how to run all aspects of production.

Riley was also tasked with running the annual 12-hour Falcon Victory livestream which is a fundraising stream to help raise money for the esports team. This involves setting up a schedule for players to play games and having him come up with ways to make sure the broadcast went well for the team.

Riley’s passion for esports is not only seen from the time he puts into his craft but also the fact he is always looking to improve and teach others how they can improve and help make the esports world better and better.

Riley’s goals for the future

Riley plans to make a career out of esports broadcasting and indeed to pursue a Master’s in Professional Leadership at Converse University. His ultimate goal is to work for a university leading the broadcast and one day being able to teach broadcast to students. “I’m looking forward to furthering my studies at Converse University for graduate school, something I’d never have the means to do without their offer of an esports broadcasting scholarship.”

With Riley’s life being esports he feels “The future of esports, especially in North America, is going to be in the collegiate scene”

“The future of esports, especially in North America, is going to be in the collegiate scene.”

Riley Harrison

He feels “esports is a fresh avenue of human competition” and that this will become a big part of future society. Esports has so much potential for competition with the number of fresh games coming out on a monthly to yearly basis, that there will always be new competition and people growing better and better at these games.