Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Thomas Goodman was named Finlandia’s first director of esports last week. The team will compete in nine games when it launches this fall.

HANCOCK — Eventually, esports will be an NCAA sport, and part of the Olympics, Finlandia University’s new esports director predicts. 

Right now, Thomas Goodman is helping Finlandia stake a claim in the sport’s early days. Goodman was named director last week for the program, which will begin competing this fall. 

He comes from Finlandia from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, where he had been esports director and coach since 2018. In that time, he grew the program from six students to 45, and from four games to eight. The team also notched a fifth-place national finish in Tespa Rocket League. 

“When this job opened up, it was like a dream to come live here,” he said. “I always wanted to live in this area. I travel around the world quite a bit and Norway and Sweden are some of my favorite places to hang out. So this area is very much similar to that.”

He’s also been competing in video games himself long before the days of Twitch streams and ESPN coverage. He qualified for several Nintendo Powerfest events and took second place in Tetris at the 1990 Nintendo World Championship. 

Goodman also held a third-place world ranking in Counter-Strike in 2001-02 and competed in several world qualifiers in CS:GO and Unreal Tournament. Goodman was an Everquest and World of Warcraft beta tester and was in some of the largest raiding guilds in those games. Most recently, Goodman has reached legend status in Hearthstone, a 3661sr player in Overwatch on PS4 and D1 rank 1 in FIFA.

He also brings traditional sports experience to the team. He moved to England as a 15-year-old to play for Arsenal’s Academy Team in soccer, eventually spending two seasons with Torquay United. He also competed with Canada’s Olympic mountain biking team until injuries ended his athletic career. He said he will likely help out with Finlandia’s soccer team as well. 

That athletic background helps him bridge the gap with esports skeptics. 

“Everyone thinks esports shouldn’t be a sport, and that’s been a fight since the beginning,” he said. “But then they actually play the game and see how much of a team-based sport it is, how tactical you have to be … it’s not that cardio physical, but it’s still physical.”

Finlandia’s first esports season this fall will include nine games: Overwatch, Call of Duty, Fortnite, FIFA, Madden NFL, Super Smash Brothers, League of Legends, Hearthstone and Rocket League. 

Finlandia will be part of the Eastern Athletic Conference (EAC), where it will compete against everyone from junior colleges to Division 1 schools like the University of Michigan. They will play remotely against other teams from a new facility at Finlandia with new computers and consoles.

The early goal is for about 40 players, though “the sky’s the limit,” Goodman said. The program also had a strong academic component, with support personnel needed in areas like multimedia design and video production. 

The team is recruiting among current students, as well as high school seniors. Last week, Goodman went on a recruiting trip to several western U.P. high schools. 

“Millions of people watch these tournaments, and all these high school students want to be that person who’s the NFL player of esports, making millions a week,” he said. “So they’re all excited to get into the industry.”