On a recent Friday at Steelcase’s Learning + Innovation Center in Grand Rapids, teams of elite athletes gathered for competition and for the 2025 G.O.A.T. Rodeo trophy. The athletes traveled to Steelcase from some of the largest and most prestigious universities in the Midwest including Michigan State, Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, University of Cincinnati and the University of Michigan.
They wore jerseys emblazoned with their team colors and often with nicknames across the back like Peaches, Piggyman, Vulcan and Dice. And while they played pickup basketball and ping-pong between competitions at Steelcase, these were no ordinary athletes. They were gamers — eSports athletes — and some of the best in the world at highly competitive computer games like Super Smash Bros., Rocket League and Valorant.
There is a reason Steelcase and many other office furniture companies are interested in eSports as a market. According to the Entertainment Software Association, there are nearly 191 million Americans who play video games and 61% of the U.S. population reports playing video games for at least one hour every week. Many who do not play video games underestimate the size of the market. The video game industry generates significantly more revenue globally than the film industry, with some estimates suggesting it is larger than movies, TV and music combined. And eSports athletes often train eight to 12 hours a day to hone their skills and achieve success, demonstrating the same commitment required to excel in any athletic endeavor. That requires ergonomic furniture.
Office furniture makers are taking note of the computer gaming market, which was worth an eye-popping $76.73 billion in 2024 and is projected to more than double by 2032. Computer gaming is part of the Steelcase community. Steelcase has 13 Business Inclusion Groups, employee-led groups designed to encourage inclusion. Groups include everything from gender equity, Hispanic culture, working parents, young professionals and its gaming community, which celebrates play in all forms, creating community through gaming.
An area of the company’s Grand Rapids Learning Center, on the same campus as the Steelcase headquarters, is set aside for gaming. It includes multiple computers and consoles set up for computer gaming and every day, you can find employees taking a break there. While you might think that the gaming area is only utilized by young workers, former Chief Executive Officer Jim Keene used to take breaks by gaming, often rubbing shoulders with young interns who found themselves shocked to be playing against the company’s top executive.
Charlie Hunt, Steelcase’s customer experience team leader, and one of the gaming community leaders was dressed in a black and white referee shirt and headband and helped organize the G.O.A.T. tournament, the second year of the event.
“We’ve been exploring eSports for a while,” he said. “We have a really strong learning team, and part of it was our own interest, and part of it was schools and people in the field just kept asking, ‘Do we have an eSports solution?’ And thankfully we do. We don’t have a gaming catalog, but we’re here to help people work better. So that includes play better and the same ergonomic support is needed.”
Ergonomic support is a growing concern among eSports athletes and the schools they play for. Since gaming sessions can last longer than a typical workday, serious ergonomic support is needed. Cleveland Clinic, which studied the health affects of eSports, said repetitive use and ergonomic-related injuries are common, along with visual and neurocognitive risks associated with prolonged screen interactions, such as eye strain and psychomotor strain.
Computer gamers, who are often young and with a limited budget, are sold gaming chairs that are colorful and flashy, but often lack ergonomic support and are poorly built. Companies like Steelcase, MillerKnoll and HON have embraced eSports and computer gaming. They are also trying to educate gamers why a highly ergonomic chair, sometimes priced five times as much as a cheap task chair, is worth the price.
At the same time, the office furniture industry is beginning to see the importance of computer gaming and eSports as a market (two people from NBS, a Steelcase dealer Southeast Michigan were at the Steelcase eSports tournament to learn more).
Steelcase Design Manager Kathy Waterman recently helped Michigan State University create a new eSports lab in an underused classroom on its East Lansing, Mich. campus. The gaming center includes custom Steelcase Gesture chairs in green and white with the distinctive Spartan logo, desks and sofas, tables and stools for meetings, collaboration and more casual gaming sessions. The market is not limited to higher education either. Many K-12 schools are exploring or building out spaces for eSports.
“These are important spaces for universities and they use them to attract new students,” she said. “Michigan State wanted a space that was safe and comfortable for eSports and we worked closely with them to create this beautiful space on campus. It is a magnet for students interested in computer gaming.”
Chris Bilski, Director of eSports at Michigan State University said video games are fun to play, but they also tie into the educational mission of the university as well. For many universities, eSports is a club activity, but at Michigan State, it is under the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. And the next time you scold your children for playing too much computer games, it is important to note that Michigan State offers a limited number of partial scholarships for its varsity eSports program. They are not alone. More than 200 universities offer eSports scholarships, according to the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE).
Michigan State supports the gamers, but it also highlights career connections. Bilski looked around the Steelcase event and pointed out potential jobs associated with gaming — development and design, art and animation, programming and quality assurance testing. Other opportunities exist in related fields like audio engineering, writing, marketing and content creation, such as streaming.
“We took a holistic approach to eSports,” he said. “A lot of schools focus kind of on the gaming or competition and it really ends there. We looked at eSports as an opportunity to really foster community among students and connect them with potential. So we have this huge passion and interest in gaming and eSports. Can we use this as a hook to connect students with something that’s going to serve them for the rest of their lives?”
A good example of how gaming can become a career can be found in James Villar. Villar worked at Steelcase for more than five years as an applications engineer and technology architect before he started working in eSports full time. He worked for the Twitch streaming service as its Rocket League eSports program lead. He now works for Epic Games as its Rocket League eSports analyst and was back at Steelcase for its G.O.A.T. event.
“People are super passionate about video games. A lot of (players) dream of being a professional game. Maybe they’re not trained enough to be a professional gamer, but they might be good enough to be on a top collegiate team in their state and get a taste of what it feels like to be a pro gamer and also be able to pay for their college. For the colleges, investing in eSports makes sense because if you have a great eSports program, kids are going to want to go there and try to make the team. They will spend their money to go there. So it’s profitable for the colleges in that regard,” he said.
Gianna DiMona, the eSports Innovation Lab Coordinator at the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub, graduated from the university two years ago. She was a gamer, but got involved in the management of the team, which led to her current job. She’s technically still a student at the university, pursuing a degree in sports management, which applies much more to her current position than her undergraduate degree in biology.
Like many, joining the eSports program helped her adjust to university life and find a community. “I’m actually originally from New Jersey, so I moved to Ohio to go to school, had no friends, joined the club and basically got my entire friend group from there,” she said.
The University of Cincinnati has about 5,500 students that actively participate in its eSports club, but only to top players make it on the team that travels to tournaments across the country. There are freshmen, junior varsity and varsity teams, just like regular athletics.
While teams like Alabama and Duke often come out on top in football and basketball, any university with a commitment to eSports — from small to large — can compete in eSports. Top eSports teams include: Columbia College, which is requently ranked at or near the top, particularly in League of Legends; Maryville University, which is a consistent top contender with multiple national championship wins in League of Legends and a strong Overwatch team; University of California, Irvine, which was the first public university to create an official eSports program; Miami University, which has a history of national success, including a championship win in Overwatch and a strong program with varsity teams for multiple games; and University of Utah, which has a strong and growing program that has received high rankings and features a team supported by sports psychologists and other specialists.
The Steelcase event also introduced the hundreds of student eSports athletes to the company. Steelcase provided lunch, tours of its facilities and several round table discussions for the students to enjoy. They also learned about job opportunities at the company related to technology.
In the end, Michigan State University swept the event, winning the Super Smash Bros., Rocket League and Valorant G.O.A.T. titles. But it is Steelcase and the office furniture industry that might win in the end as eSports and computer gaming learns about the importance of ergonomics and proper work tools — along with the sales that come with it.