Gadgetory

last year the University of California Irvine announced it would offer scholarships for eSports players this year it's collaborating with a student Club on campus to open an eSports training facility and student lounge a lot of students play games and support like eSports it's really cool to be around an environment of similar individuals I was expecting a few years ago I'll just come play with normal college players but now I'm playing with great players I'm happy yeah the facility itself is actually a little smaller than I expected but it's tricked out so right here you can see behind me are these 60 computers super high-end about hard gaming computers like here is definitely better than what I have at home top-of-the-line equipment the steps are really nice the room looks really nice and if students want to pick up a couple of pointers from the best of the best they can check out the competition corner where scholarship athletes will practice you'll be able to watch them practice just kind of like how you can go to the gym and watch your basketball team practice at any other university in addition to providing a space where eSports scholarship athletes can practice and train UC Irvine also hopes its student gamers will have an opportunity to socialise in a way they haven't before goal point is that we want to ping gamers out of their dorms out of home and come to this arena and play in-person meet new friends and get that real-life socialization that people kind of stigmatize against gamers I get to help abolish that stereo side to the Facebook lore which I've always hated even though this facility was built at no cost to the University it still has to make money which is where students come in any student can come in here anytime they want obviously during school hours and pay four dollars an hour to play on these computers with their friends with new classmates the profits from the arena don't just benefit the facility either we actually are putting money into the campus so we're already basically committed a grant to research and we've also donated about two thousand dollars to the UCI hospital to help children with cancer through a charity called game-changer we don't want to build a build space that really meets the needs of the campus and I think this is gonna be a really good demo for us to show the campus and show the world that this is something like gamers and students across UCI and across the nation one seat I want to further my education the most this is a good way for me to do it while doing something I love so I guess you could consider the UC Irvine eSports arena as a mental gym student athletes can drop by to get in a quick workout and other students can stop by socialize with their friends and also have a little fun it's the first of its kind but I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of these facilities popping up on campuses across the country in the future you