It's an activity that's taking the nation by storm: Esports.

"This certainly is not a fad, it's only growing," said Siena College Associate Athletic Director Dennis Bates.

E-gaming is projected to be a billion-dollar industry in 2019. Now, Siena College is gearing up to take on some tough competition. The school invested in new state-of-the-art gaming computers.

"They're very high-end computers, fast computers. There's special memory chips in there," Bates said.

It's a passion team members Joel Madru and Greg MacGowan started at a young age.

"The very first thing I got was a Gameboy Advance from one of my neighbors when I was about six," MacGowan said.

They said their parents made sure they didn't spend too much time in front of a screen.

"I very much had limits on how much I could play a day," Madru said.

However, parents may change their tune when they learn it could help their kids prepare for the future. According to Bates, West Coast universities have already began handing out athletic scholarships for gaming.

"We're just in our infancy here at Siena, but there's already institutions like UCLA that are already granting scholarships," Bates said.

While MacGowan says the industry has changed so much, even thorugh his lifetime.

"Back in the 90s, it was just something that all the kids were doing, and now it evolved into something people could really revolve their lives around," MacGowan said.

Madru says gaming has allowed these two to be a part of athletics in a new way they never have before.

"We all have school spirit and we're not good at football, soccer, or basketball, but if we could represent our school this way, we will," he said.

"Much like going out on the field or on the court, you'd have to communicate with your teammates, [on] offense or defense. Same thing here. The students are communicating with one another to defeat their opponent," adds Bates.　

The team has its sights set on a good run this season. There are already plans to attend the inaugural Hudson Valley GamerCon at the Albany Capital Center in March.