KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — It’s not your usual college athletic facility…no sweaty guys or girls, they are competing in virtual worlds on distant planets, or hostile parts of our own battling digital monsters and bad guys from a seated position.
As part of an effort by President Edward Montgomery to make campus more student and staff friendly, the new E-Sports Complex was suggested and funded with half a million dollars from the Transformational Fund he set up.
They took the venerable Little Theatre on East Campus which was hosting the occasional community theatre production or art film and turned it into a gaming arena, with 36-video gaming consoles, extra lighting, a big sound system and two big screens which allow the crowd sitting in the seats below to watch the teams compete.
They will be getting much more use out of the facility now.
While it may be difficult to follow the action if you aren’t familiar with the games, for the millennials who are…it can be entertaining. They are filling football arenas for competitions out west.
Dr. Montgomery says they have university teams, one for each of the 4 or 5 multi-player games chosen by a student poll. They may add additional teams as they add more and newer games.
It will also be used for intramural competitions to get more students involved.
Montgomery says it will get students out of their dorm rooms to engage with each other, and serve as an attraction for high school students looking for a college that suits their needs and interests.
Assistant Director of Club Sports and E-sports Andre Rattray says there is a lot more to it than just a lot of nerds blowing up things on line. He says each team has coaches, Varsity and Jr. Varsity players and team crew and they can have as many teams, as there are games.
Participants learn team building skills, problem solving, hand-eye coordination and gain other skills that have application in the real world.
Dr. Montgomery says they hope to develop students who can design games, and use those programming skills to develop new real-world applications.
As far as team sports go, there are virtually no injuries…and no travel, they can engage other University teams online. No need for showers and the uniforms are a t-shirt.
They held a grand opening over Homecoming Weekend.
