By Will Gilson, Currier Times Staff///

Construction is underway for the new Esports Center in the old game room in the Student Center. An opening ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday March 19th at 2 p.m. with President Gonzalez in attendance. Photos courtesy: Curry College

If you’ve been to the Student Center recently, you might have noticed the construction that is taking place in the old game room. This is in preparation for Curry’s launch of Esports, or electronic sports, which is a form of video game competition later this semester. The college has announced an opening ceremony with President Jay Gonzelez will occur on Tuesday March 19th at 2 p.m. at the facility.

Kevin Blackmur, the Assistant Director of Intramurals Club Sports and Fitness Center Operations, said that Esports is a growing interest among college students.

“In my research kind of over the summer of student engagement and things of that sort I noticed Esports was this highly growing industry,” Blackmur said. “Not only everywhere in the world, but particularly on college campuses.”

How Esports started on Curry’s campus was through some leftover funds by Curry College President Jay Gonzalez’s team.

“We made it a priority and worked to free up funding in the current year’s capital budget,” Gonzalez said. “A number of leaders on campus have been involved in quickly planning and carrying out the project to ensure it is done in March and that it is done well.”

Gonzalez says his inclination to fund Esports was by hearing from students directly about bringing Esports to Curry.

“It was clear to me that lots of students are into gaming and Esports,” Gonzalez said. “I also learned that a number of other colleges and universities have created a dedicated space for Esports.”

Blackmur hopes Esports eventually becomes a varsity sport, adding to Curry’s profile on a national scale.

“You could be playing an NCAA sport, something that maybe you never thought could be possible,” Blackmur said. “And I think just help put Curry on the map a little bit more.”

Blackmur says to balance a both fun and competitive atmosphere, recreational gaming will be offered in addition to the development of the competitive side.

“For the recreational side, there will be dedicated hours almost like an open gym that I run in Intramurals where you don’t need to sign up ahead of time you can just show up and if there’s a computer available, you can sign up,” Blackmur said. “We will have certain hours where people can put teams together and have practices and kind of develop the roster and how they want to operate in anticipation for fully launching I’d say competitive clubs in the fall of 2024.”

Across campus, students are excited for the opening of Esports. Gabe Gomez, a sophomore Psychology major, has considered joining the more competitive aspect of Esports.

“I might if I have enough time and it works out,” Gomez said. “It might be something fun to do.”

In addition to an opportunity for students to meet and have fun, Esports will also have an academic component tied to the Communication major’s curriculum, specifically the Video Games concentration and the Video Games minor.

Dr. Robert MacDougall, professor of Communication and Media Studies and Coordinator of the Video Game Studies Curriculum, says that Esports will allow students to study the human response to video games.

“My hope is to be able to eventually get a situation where while people are playing they might have eye trackers hooked up so we can see how people’s cognitive and emotional responses are being triggered in various ways by the games,” MacDougall said. “There’s all kinds of cool research that you can do.”

Reflecting on past experiences teaching students about video games, MacDougall says having Esports in the Student Center will allow future students to access consoles in a more classroom setting where they otherwise would not be there.

“Some of these guys would come in, were like where are the consoles,” MacDougall said. “It’s wonderful now that we’re going to have this very practical hands-on place to augment the academic, theory and research side of things.”

Students look forward to the possible connections Esports will offer. Sydney Waldron, a junior Communications major, anticipates people coming together out of love of video games.

“Honestly I feel like it could be an interesting concept and a good way for people to socialize and interact with one another,” Waldron said. “Plus it would be fun to bond over your favorite games.”

The plan is for the Esports lounge to be fully opened up to the community right after Spring break this semester. You can view the lounge designs right here. In addition to PC computers, the space will also feature Nintendo Switches, and a PS5.

Curry is part of National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC), which is a conference for schools in the United States and Canada.

The old game room equipment has been moved to residence halls across campus until a permanent location that all students can access is found.