The word of e-sports has been slowly circulating for the last couple of years and has even been showcased on ESPN. Now universities are engaging with the e-sports world and working with major companies to offer new opportunities for students.
E-sports is competitive, electronic gaming that is often performed by professionals just like professionals play football, basketball, hockey, etc.
More recently e-sports has partnered with the Big Ten Universities, where colleges are now incorporating e-sports as a new competitive sport offered on campus.
Recently the University of California, Irvine, opened their dedicated e-sports space which has inspired other universities to jump on board the e-sports train.
But is this feasible for most universities? The reason that Irvine was capable of making this space was due to funding from big companies such as Logitech and iBuyPower. UCI also has liquid cooling for their CPU’s and custom gaming chairs for over 60 systems. .
Expecting other universities to be able to afford a set up as awesome as UCI’s is too ambitious in my opinion.
Currently, West Virginia University is trying to create their own gaming space, but due to a limited budget they are only able to afford a maximum of around 10 computers that won’t even compare to that of UCI’s. The space will also have to be adaptable for other sports clubs to use if necessary.
Will the transition into e-sports be as easy for other universities as it seems to have been for Irvine? That remains to be seen, but the Big Ten universities are offering e-sports opportunities to students with or without the arena.
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