Humber Esports' new website will create an essential, more accessible information hub for would-be fans.
“We will strive to include as much information as we can about where we stand in leagues, who we’re playing, when it’s happening and how to stay up to date,” Humber Esports Senior Administrator Bernard Mafei said, adding that the site will arrive at the start of the fall semester.
However, the site may be on hold until the list of varsity video games, rosters and team photos are confirmed to have updated information ready at launch, Mafei said.
He said every other aspect of the website is finished.
“It just needs to be tweaked to hit the standard we want to release it at,” he said.
Mafei said the site will feature news, an event calendar, match reminders an esports introduction for new viewers.
There will also be a game-divided teams page fully equipped with rosters, coaches, photos and player information cards, he said.
“This (website) is completely student-built,” Mafei said.
He said the site started by presenting the idea to a Humber website development class in 2024 and received tremendous feedback from the students.
More than 50 students have worked on the website across multiple programs and internships, he said.
Data Insight Analyst students from the Humber International Graduate campus also worked on the website.
Humber Esports have employed two web development interns per academic year since the construction of the website started.
“Now we’re at the final stages,” Mafei said.
Two interns will be working over the summer this year to complete the site’s final iteration. Mafei said he will find someone to keep the website updated.
“We don’t want to release it and then it gets dusty,” Mafei said.
The site is part of a five-year plan to elevate the program to their final goals, which is currently in its third year, he said.
The 2025 emerging program of the year winner’s future plans include increasing stream quality, incorporating a game-changers team and club integration with full support.
Mafei said when he arrived as senior administrator in 2023 there was no staff and an incomplete system. He said Humber Esports had other priorities before working toward the website.
Mafei said hiring staff, branding and building relationships with other programs was the program’s focus.
“We weren’t ready to announce ourselves to the world, now it’s the thing we want to do the most,” he said.
This is not the first time a Humber sports organization has launched a website.
The Humber Hawks said in an email statement that their website has been active since 2014.
The statement said the site receives more than 500 visits a day and it helps with community involvement and providing information.
The current methods to communicate with would-be fans for Humber Esports are the Linktree site, its Discord server, X and Instagram.
Esports enthusiast Joshua Jose said he would be more interested in watching Humber games if he got to know the players and had more details on the matches, which will be in the website on release.
However, he said he commends Humber Esports’ Instagram account for its informative posts including upcoming events, scores and game updates.
“Instagram is probably the easiest way to keep up,” Jose said, though it still has its challenges.
Jose said stories disappear after 24 hours and there isn’t always a permanent post to accompany it. “Unlike a website, where you can keep it for as long as you want,” Jose said.
He said the alternative method, Discord, is far more time-consuming when finding the content he wants to see.
“The Discord is hard to keep track of because there’s a lot of messages coming in,” Jose said. “You got to be on it all the time to know what’s happening.”
Fighting game fanatic Noah Omonzane said he did not know Humber Esports participated in collegiate fighting games despite following them on X.
“I miss out on a lot of stuff,” Omonzane said.
Algorithm-based platforms, like X, omit information it believes the user will not interact with.
X’s algorithm didn’t suggest Humber’s fighting game posts on his ‘for you’ page.
He said if he knew about Humber’s fighting matches, he would have watched sooner.
Despite only non-fighting games showing on his feed, he said he enjoys the informative posts about the other games and events.
