RIT alumni are shaping new careers: Esports country club founder

Ben Garvey loves video games and as an entrepreneurial student at RIT, he detected a gap in the market.

Hundreds of millions of people around the globe now engage in esports. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry, where professional and amateur players compete in popular video games.

At RIT, Garvey ’21 (applied arts and sciences) helped start and manage the collegiate Call of Duty team with RIT Esports. While procuring PlayStation 4s and organizing practice time, he realized that there was no “third space” for video gaming—a social environment that’s separate from home and work and school. Even when they could find a space, it wasn’t a high-end experience with premier equipment.

“The venues would smell or have power problems, or you’d have to bring your own consoles and power cables,” said Garvey. “If I had to bring my own mower to cut the grass at a golf country club, that would be crazy.”

In 2020, he founded Great Lakes Gaming (GLG) on the 22nd floor of Innovation Square, a downtown Rochester complex. He sees it as a country club for local gamers, where people can compete and socialize. The space features high-end PC stations, custom network stacks, private streaming booths, console setups, and a café for gamers.

GLG holds leagues, weekly tournaments, and events for competitive college and high school gamers. The company has also expanded into parties, summer camps, and trading card events. In 2026, GLG opened a second retail shop at Total Sports Experience in Gates, N.Y.

Garvey said that GLG wouldn’t be a thing had it not been for RIT’s Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship. The School of Individualized Study program gave him time to focus on jumpstarting his business venture.

“I love it because I can’t call anyone and ask how to run a gaming country club,” said Garvey. “There’s nothing else like it.”