USA Esports is announced and mark a new era for US esports

USA Esports is a new national organization that aims to coordinate esports in the United States through governance, national teams, and long term athlete development. Announced today, March 16th, the organization presents itself as the national organizing body for US esports and plans to work across professional, collegiate, scholastic, and amateur levels.

The group also pursues future status as a National Governing Body within the Olympic system, mirroring structures used by USA Baseball, USA Basketball, and other sport federations. Its arrival coincides with the creation of the Olympic Esports Games and the Esports Nations Cup, two global events that rely on national representation.

Origins of USA Esports

The roots of USA Esports lie in the work of VOICE (Voice of Intercollegiate Esports), a non profit that has organized a President's Advisory Council of university presidents and chancellors for collegiate esports in the United States over the past three years. After the International Olympic Committee announced plans for an Olympic Esports Games in 2024, the council asked VOICE to study what kind of national structure could best support US esports at home and in international competition. That request led to a six month discovery process with conversations across North American professional clubs, leading collegiate programs, and more than a dozen existing US national governing bodies in traditional sport.

Stakeholders across those levels reported a similar problem, there was no purpose built national entity that could link professional, K 12, collegiate, and amateur play while preparing US players to face top national teams abroad. In August 2025, USA Esports incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to fill that gap as a unified national body. The public launch in March 2026 presents the result of more than a year of work by volunteers and staff, many working outside normal hours.​

National teams and multi title structure

The public website for USA Esports places national teams at the center of its identity. The organization plans to select and develop elite American players to represent the United States in international competition, working across titles and regional scenses to locate talent. It explicitly mentions a pathway that connects grassroots communities with seasoned professionals and promises structure and support for players who aim to reach the top.​

Upcoming match listings and team pages cover a wide range of titles, including Valorant, Counter Strike, Apex Legends, Dota 2, EA Sports FC 25, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, among others. This catalogue shows that USA Esports is not tied to a single publisher or genre and instead treats national representation as a multi game project.

The Olympic Esports Games and Nations Cup Connection

USA Esports emerged during a period when country based esports events are gaining formal structure. In July 2024, the International Olympic Committee approved the creation of the Olympic Esports Games in Saudi Arabia under a 12 year partnership with the Saudi National Olympic Committee. The IOC describes the event as a separate Olympic property with its own qualification processes, titles, and long term calendar.

The Esports World Cup Foundation also announced the Esports Nations Cup, a nation versus nation tournament scheduled to debut in Riyadh in November 2026 with 16 game titles and a multi week circuit. The Nations Cup format relies on permanent national teams and introduces a National Team Partner model, under which each country designates an operator responsible for roster selection, management, and logistics across multiple games.

The USA Esports Directors

The USA Esports board brings together people from medicine, traditional sports governance, collegiate administration, game development, pro play, and scholastic programs.

• Dr. Bowen Chung is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at UCLA and Harbor‑UCLA Medical Center who researches community mental health and has advised on health and wellness topics in esports, including work with Team Liquid and the UC Esports Initiative.
• Heather “sapphiRe” Mumm (Heather Garozzo) is a former Counter‑Strike world champion who became a long time observer and in‑game director for major Counter‑Strike and Valorant tournaments and founded Raidiant, a platform focused on women in esports and broadcast.
• Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg is a retired professional League of Legends mid laner best known for his years with TSM in the LCS, where he won multiple domestic titles and later worked as head coach and part‑owner.
• Mirna “Athxna” Noureldin is an esports broadcast analyst, caster, and operations professional who has worked with Riot Games and North American organizations such as FlyQuest across production and team operations roles.​
• Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert is a retired North American Counter‑Strike player with a long career on teams such as Evil Geniuses, Complexity, and Cloud9, who later moved into content creation and on‑air work around CS:GO.
• Dr. Gene Block is a biologist and higher education leader who served as chancellor of UCLA from 2007 to 2024, after previous senior roles at the University of Virginia.
• Todd Harris is a game and esports entrepreneur who co‑founded Hi‑Rez Studios and later led Resurgens Gaming, Skillshot Media, Ghost Gaming, and the United States Esports Federation, working on both game publishing and tournament infrastructure.
• Carolyne Henry is a longtime college athletics administrator who spent more than two decades at the Mountain West Conference, finishing as senior associate commissioner for governance and legal affairs and serving on several NCAA committees.
• Amy Harris is an educator and scholastic esports organizer who works as an esports general manager and coach and as a computer science teacher in Missouri, and she serves as executive director of the Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation.

​Other Countries Very Likely to Follow

USA Esports is part of a broader trend in which countries create national esports bodies that resemble traditional sports federations. The British Esports Federation, for example, describes itself as the national body for esports in the United Kingdom and manages British participation in the Global Esports Games, Commonwealth Esports Championships, and other Olympic sanctioned events. In South Korea, the Korea e Sports Association operates as a member of the Korean Olympic Committee and oversees dozens of esports titles and national teams. International organizations such as the International Esports Federation report more than 150 member nations with official federations, indicating that many countries already use this model.

Events built around national teams increase the pressure on countries that still lack such structures. The Nations Cup model already assumes that each participating state will appoint a National Team Partner with long term responsibility for its program, including roster management and development plans. Olympic Esports Games will also require National Olympic Committees to coordinate with esports bodies in their territories, which encourages formal partnerships.

In this context, USA Esports functions as a template for countries where publishers or informal groups currently handle national team selection. Its nonprofit status, focus on athlete welfare, and pursuit of NGB recognition match the way many governments and Olympic committees already work with sporting federations. If the model leads to stable pipelines, credible selection processes, and improved results for United States teams at Olympic Esports Games and Nations Cup events, other regions may choose to establish or reform their own national esports bodies along similar lines.

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Feature image credits: USA Esports

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