The Northwood University esports program and Great Lakes Loons are combining efforts to produce the Great Lakes Gaming Convention (GLGC), a festival focused on celebrating gaming, esports, and STEM. The festival will feature a variety of events ranging from college and high school Rocket League invitationals, a Super Smash Bros.Ultimate Collegiate Crew Battle Invitational, open Super Smash Bros.Ultimate, Mario Kart World, and MLB The Show tournament, and even trading card game tournaments for Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Riftbound.

For the GLGC invitationals, 16 of the top collegiate Rocket League teams across the nation have qualified for the event, including Northwood’s varsity team. 8 high schools across the state have been invited, and 8 collegiate Smash Bros. teams from across the nation have been invited. All together, there are over $16,000 in prize pool offered for all three of these events.

With the esports program’s involvement with the event, both program coaches and student leaders have been working hard since March to ensure the production and operations of the event go smoothly. Currently, two Northwood students, Lexi Brown and Kevin Gualberti, are acting as committee leads for marketing and broadcasting production, respectively, and more students will be involved for day-of operations, helping with broadcasting, tournament operations, or technology maintenance.

The event is a two-day event run over the weekend of September 26th and 27th, at the Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan. Standard tickets are $10 per day, Youth tickets (ages 5-12) are $5 per day, and VIP tickets are $45 for both days.