USA Esports, a new nonprofit organization, has just gone public with a clear ambition: to become the recognized National Governing Body (NGB) for esports in the United States, endorsed by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee — in the same vein as USA Basketball or US Soccer.
The United States is lagging behind
The organization already boasts broad support from the ecosystem, bringing together major professional clubs such as 100 Thieves, TSM, Cloud9, Team Liquid, and NRG, as well as numerous universities (UCLA, UC Irvine, UT Dallas, Georgia Tech, Baylor…).
The project is led by Jesse Bodony, Director of Esports at Pace University and head of VOICE, an organization dedicated to collegiate esports in the United States. Following the IOC's announcement of the Olympic Esports Games in 2024, a consortium of university presidents launched six months of consultations with professional clubs, collegiate programs, and traditional sports federations.
The findings were unanimous: there is no entity capable of unifying the layers of the American esports landscape — from scholastic to professional, including collegiate and amateur — to compete on the international stage.
Aware of the country's lag in building a federated esports structure, Bodony acknowledges:
"International esports competition is here. Nations around the world are preparing their athletes to compete globally. The United States, for all of its talent and for all of its history in this space, is lagging behind."
Worth noting: the announcement makes no mention of the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), but the creation of USA Esports could well be aimed at this nation-based competition scheduled for November 2026 on League of Legends and VALORANT. Having a recognized NGB would be a logical prerequisite for sending a structured US national team.
J'espere que l'on aura la meme chose avec ce qu'il veulent faire UFCEP et le truc de Bertrand Amar. Dommage que France Esport c'est des incapables car on aurait pu faire des grandes choses avec eux. On verra bien ce que ça donnera