Washburn University has an eSports club where students can play video games and compete with other students. It gives students a place to relax, meet other gamers and take part in tournaments. The club also has an esports and gaming lounge where students can practice and play together, it is located in the Living Learning Center 2nd floor.
“We have an overwatch and a Mario kart tournament in the future. But we also play party games like Vegas or any game,” said Nicholas Johnston, President of eSports club.
Johnston also mentioned the goal of organizing the tournaments is to get a bunch of people together to play games and have fun.
Griffin Lickteig is an esports manager at the esports lounge. He helps set up schedules, organize events and checks on the space when it is being used while majoring in forensic anthropology.
“I believe that this [mini tournament] brings a strong community together on campus, showing that gaming is not just for nerds, it’s for literally everyone and anyone,” Lickteig said. “We’ve had people who have never touched the video game and realized the whole joy. So, it’s really nice to see some people that you probably have never talked to on campus before. It’s a real merging of every major that can come here. It’s not like a specific major has to appear here. I think it’s definitely broad in space.”
Washburn students along with regular esports players took part in the mini tournament.
“I play Mario games with friends because Mario games are very party based,” said Christian Meza, sophomore biology major. “You need a cooperative or in this case competition. It makes it more fun because you’re actually interacting with one another and you can blow at times when you do win.”
Meza said that mini tournaments encourage students to relax and interact with one another. He explained that unlike passing people in hallways or classrooms where you just say hi, this setting allows everyone to sit down, relax, engage, have fun and bond, mentioning that his favorite character was Shy Guy because he liked the mask and hoodie and had always taken a liking to the character in games.
The eSports gaming center is located on the second floor of the LLC. Everyone is welcome, including all Washburn students and Washburn Tech students. The space is open every day from 3-11 p.m. and on weekends from 2-9 p.m.
Edited by Bidhya Sapkota and Anushma Dahal
