A new website was recently launched to give active-duty Marines the opportunity to compete in video game tournaments on all-Marine teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marine Corps Gaming<\/a> is the service branch\u2019s unofficial platform to connect Marines to military esports and to one another, said Capt. Michael Maggitti, who is spearheading what he hopes will become an official esports program within the Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to community building, the website will be used to identify gaming talent for the Dec. 10 Call of Duty Endowment<\/a> Bowl, an annual tournament pitting the best in Call of Duty service branch teams against one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe C.O.D.E. Bowl is the biggest stage to highlight the community … in a way that the Marine Corps will understand it,\u201d Maggitti, the emergent technologies officer for Recruiting Command, told Marine Corps Times. \u201cIt will open a lot of eyes in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, the tournament will be held aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid<\/a> in New York City and will include a Coast Guard team for the first time. In all, nine esports teams from the U.S. and U.K. will be competing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s inspiring to see the growth of gaming within our military along with the connectedness, resiliency and esprit de corps it drives,\u201d Dan Goldenberg, executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment, said in a press release. \u201cWhether deployed or distant from friends and family, gaming brings people together, and I\u2019m excited for the C.O.D.E. Bowl this year to allow all the US and UK branches to compete against one another for a great cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One arm\u2019s distance<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Marine Corps Gaming isn\u2019t affiliated with the Marine Corps, the only way Marines can register to play in the C.O.D.E. Bowl on the Marine Corps team is by confirming active-duty status via it\u2019s Discord channel<\/a>, Maggitti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMarine Corps Recruiting Command is aware of what we\u2019re doing, so we\u2019re kind of in this gray area,\u201d Maggitti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is new territory for the Marine Corps, which has been slow to take the plunge into the rising waters of military esports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not the first time the Marine Corps has been present at esports events, or even had its members compete against other service branch teams. There just hasn\u2019t been any real indication that the Marine Corps would form an official esports team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even in 2020, the Marine Corps only dipped a toe into the second annual C.O.D.E. Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Corps\u2019 not-an-esports-team, or \u201cquick reaction force<\/a>,\u201d was composed of Marines from its recruiting command. No scouting was done in the seemingly rich talent pool of junior Marines who game during their off-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the 2020 tournament, the Call of Duty Endowment approached all the branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maggitti was told by his leadership, \u201c\u2018You\u2019re the gaming guy, figure this out,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An internal tournament was then opened up to Marine Corps Recruiting, where top talent was tested and its best players put forward, and during the Call of Duty tournament \u201cwe did fairly well,\u201d Maggitti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I knew right out of the gate, we needed to open the aperture because the feedback, while positive, was like \u2018I didn\u2019t know about this event\u2019 or \u2018Why can\u2019t I play? I\u2019m not a recruiter.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the fledgling esports program isn\u2019t endorsed by the Marine Corps or tied to its recruiting efforts, Maggitti admitted the C.O.D.E. Bowl and other esports tournaments could benefit the service branch in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gaming age gap<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Marine Corps is getting younger and younger every year,\u201d Maggitti said. \u201cIf anyone should have a community of gamers, I would think it\u2019d be the Marine Corps. It blows my mind that we\u2019re almost last to this venture and we should have been the first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of Maggitti\u2019s job entails educating leadership on how the Marine Corps can use video games and how the games positively affect morale, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat gaming was when senior leaders grew up is very different than what gaming is now,\u201d Maggitti said. \u201cPart of that is connectedness. What does that do for Marines? What does it do for their mind, their body, their spirit of being able to stay connected?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Video games have been shown to increase morale among troops in the military, according to a 2015 study<\/a>. By immersing in video games and connecting with other like-minded players, participants are \u201cremoved from the worries of society,\u201d wrote the study\u2019s authors, from Brigham Young and Weber State universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The platform\u2019s next test comes Saturday, when it will be used to organize a Call of Duty Warzone \u201ccommunity game night\u201d as a means to prepare its new Marine gamers for the C.O.D.E. Bowl qualifiers on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve laid the groundwork for this,\u201d Maggitti said. \u201cAt this point it\u2019s just about just getting enough people to continue the momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n