Kurt Melcher is the Executive Director of Gaming & Esports at Intersport, leading a team of esports and gaming industry veterans that delivers innovative marketing solutions, business strategy, investment intelligence and original production services to brands, publishers, leagues, teams, universities, and investment groups. The Intersport gaming and esports group is the driving force behind notable work for clients that include the NCAA, Warner Bros, Rocket Mortgage, Samsung, Smithfield Foods, Sony PlayStation, Red Bull, and 7-Eleven. Intersport’s gaming and esports group provides global turnkey gaming/esports solutions for brands, game publishers, and teams across production, broadcast, tournament, and tour design.

Melcher served as the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) strategic esports advisor, leading the governing body’s research of the collegiate esports community and developing frameworks for how esports could potentially be incorporated into the collegiate sports model. Additionally, Kurt and the Intersport team work with NCAA member conferences to develop esports programming as well as individual universities to strategically onboard competitive and community esports programs, including areas such as administrative staffing and player recruitment, facility design and co-curricular initiatives.

Kurt rose to prominence in 2014, when he made Robert Morris University (IL) the first university to recognize esports as part of the athletic department and offer athletic scholarships to gamers, helping legitimize the world of college esports. An athletic director and coach for more than 15 years, Melcher recognized the core educational elements involved in traditional sports and believesthe same holds true in esports.

Melcher’s visionary program has been highlighted in several prominent news outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, ESPN, NPR, HBO Real Sports, and in thedocumentaryfilm,“AllWorkAllPlay.” KurtalsobecameaTEDspeakerwhenhepresentedtheTEDx Talk “Gamers, The Rising Stars of Collegiate Athletics”.

Duran was in the esports space before the term “esports” was coined. Originally a StarCraft player Duran started his career by organising tournaments on his university campus which quickly expanded to form a league across all UC schools. The rapid growth and demand from students helped to forge Collegiate Starleague (CSL) which Duran co-founded in 2009. As the CEO of CSL Duran was responsible for onboarding universities and creating leagues and tournaments across multiple games in order to appeal to every competitive gamer. For over a decade Duran has been committed to developing the collegiate esports scene helping college campuses across North America to establish teams. Over 1,800 house teams have been formed across a number of games and platforms and now over $1 million is given away each year in scholarships. Duran now embarks on his next move heading up the newly formed collegiate esports division of FACEIT, the leading competitive gaming platform that is committed to evolving the grassroots competitive ecosystem. Duran will grow the new team and form collegiate programs for FACEIT’s partners helping them to build new international communities.