A new esports facility was approved by the Board of Trustees in January to be built on the bottom level of Scripps Hall.
Construction is tentatively set to begin in early summer of 2020 and the project has an about $650,000 budget. The facility will include a social gaming area, a competition room, a club practice room, and a broadcasting booth, according to a previous Post report.
The project was suggested and designed by Jeffrey Kuhn, instructional designer in the Office of Instructional Innovation and the GRID Lab. Kuhn also had input from the cofounders of Bobcat Esports, Kristofer Meyeres, a senior studying quantitative business analytics, and Ivy O'Shaughnessy, a senior studying games and animation.
About two years ago, the Office of Instructional Innovation had an Academic Innovation Accelerator, a place for faculty to pitch ideas to the university for things like new programs. Kuhn pitched the idea of an Esports program, he said.
Kuhn describes the future space as an environment both conducive to socializing and learning. It will also serve as a space for hosting competitions against other eSport teams.
“There will be a place for … an area that's more kind of socially inclined with Nintendos and Xboxes and PlayStations for people to socialize,” Kuhn said. “The final part (will be) a kind of ... open area for students to come in and play games, but then also a good club practice space that during the day would serve as a teaching and learning space, basically a classroom dedicated towards you know, gaming.”
As well as having the Esports facility, Kuhn hopes to see the university build up academic programs around games.
“We don't really have a classroom on campus dedicated to real game development,” Kuhn said. “I think universities really need to recognize games as a part of the lives of their students, then actually have them as a full fledged field of study in our academic programs. I just really think that we're missing a large potential opportunity to really expand and innovate across the university.”
For Bobcat Esports, the facility will create many new opportunities and allow for growth and connection within the organization.
“It's going to be an absolute critical piece to the organization's longevity,” Meyeres said. “Our biggest struggle at the start was [that] we wanted to do all these things with the community … but logistically … it just wasn’t possible.”
ESport players also hope that the facility and support from the university will fight the negative stigma around people who play video games.
“A lot of times there's this negative stigma that surrounds video game players,” O'Shaughnessy said. “We need to first establish the validity around eSports and how much work these players put into it.”
The new facility will also allow for the facilitation of a possible program for majors relating to esports, Meyeres said. One possible major is sports medicine, where students would receive certification in esports medicine.
Other members of Bobcat Esports, like Charlie Savidge, a junior studying marketing and Bobcat Esport’s Twitch officer, are also looking forward to the project’s completion.
Savidge said that previously, players have had trouble finding places to store their equipment and players have even had to play together remotely in their dorms due to not having a proper place to play together.
“I'm really excited for it,” Savidge said. “[It’s] been really tough trying to have a not having a dedicated space.”
