The New York Institute of Technology announced today that "Virtual Gaming: the conference will examine topics ranging from the broader state of esports and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to mental health, research, and innovation in esports and gaming.

The conference will open with opening remarks at 11:00 am ET and proceed with the following schedule:

11:10 am - State of Esports

11:30 am - Impact of COVID in Competitive Gaming

12:00 pm - Health and Performance: Professional Gaming Panel: Taylor Johnson, MS

Panelists

1:00 pm - Mental Health and Sport Psychology

1:30 pm - College and High School Esports Panel

2:00 pm - Academic and Research Panel

2:30 pm - Innovation in Esports and Gaming

2:45 pm - How Dell Technologies Supports K20 STEM through Esports

3:15 pm - Closing remarks

While some of the events are clearly going to be more academic than mainstream, one or two are going to be quite interesting for the relatively casual esports fan. Competitive esports is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, but there is also a very real physical one: as Katie pointed out in her recent assertion that esports competitors are athletes, "there is a There is also speculation that they are not paying enough effort.

NYIT's Virtual Gaming: Real Medicine 2020 Esports Medicine Conference is hosted on Zoom and is open to the public: access password is 163316.