BRAEDEN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer
E-gaming is a national phenomenon and is starting to enter every school. Eastern Oklahoma State College decided it wanted to join in on it. In the 2019 Fall semester, EOSC has been looking towards joining in eSports among other colleges and universities. Bryan Denny, Director of Student Life, and Paul Wills, Head of Social Sciences, were the ones to propose and push for the organization to come to be.
“I want to create a social environment for kids to interact with each other and to compete with other colleges and universities on an esports level with PCs,” Wills said.
E-gaming takes place every Monday night at 7:00pm in Mitchell 109. There is a variety of games and consoles, as well as couches to provide an area for students to hang out while not participating in gaming. The group of students a part of the organization is a small number of about 10 people, but the biggest crowd yet has been around 25 people.
Although something like e-gaming has happened at Eastern before, it is not to the same degree as this current organization. The main system used for esports league are PCs (personal computers) and the organization is working to see the best PCs while also watching how much it will cost.
The amount of people to have an eSports team depends on the tournament and game, but there need to be consistent member show up every week. Once the eSports team is created, there are questions of how people will get to and from tournaments and competitions.
“That social aspect is a major focus for me. It would be like a sports team travelling to go and compete, however, there will also be scholarships for the members on the team,” Wills said.
Scholarships are plentiful within e-gaming as well as plenty of opportunities for students to receive scholarships for college, textbooks, etc. Money for scholarships is deprived from competitions and tournaments where the students will be competing at.
“I think the college is getting behind it, I’ve heard a lot from the administration, and hopefully we will have a bright future going forward,” Wills said.
Wills and the current members of the e-gaming organization are hopeful for the future of the team. Their determination to get more members in order to join an eSports league is growing more and more every Monday.
