The esports lab will be filled with innovation and new technology like lightweight moues and high-performance keyboards–that the writer of this story will never use. Photo by Benny Morales.
By Benny Morales, Staff Reporter
If there is one thing I am doing 90% of my free time, it is playing video games. Throughout my college career, video games have been my stress reliever. So you can only imagine how excited yet bummed I am to hear that there is a new esports lab that is coming to campus this year.
During my time at CSUDH, my biggest problem was being bored while on campus during my free time or in between classes. One club that I wish I would have utilized more was the esports club. The esports club is an organization that brings students, faculty, as well as alumni together to participate in activities that involve academic research, community engagement, competition, and entertainment through video games.
I am excited because just like any other renovation that CSUDH has undergone, it should look breathtaking. Ruben Caputo, the esports general manager, is excited about the upcoming developments with the lab and the multidimensionality it will possess.
“This allows us to be more unique than most collegiate esports spaces,” Caputo said. “The lab will hold an incubation space, competition and broadcasting station, and a classroom.”
I’m not even a part of the club, and the excitement I feel thinking about the lab is undeniable, but I can only imagine how the actual club members feel.
To be honest, I am bummed since I will be graduating this year and will not be here to experience the final product of the new esports lab. Video games have played an enormous part in my life whether through competition, enjoyment, bonding with friends, or just passing the time. I would have used the esports club and lab as an opportunity to enhance my gaming skills as well as gain some peers in the process.
The esports lab would have been remarkably beneficial for me in ways that I could have been more involved with the school, such as being a part of the streaming events, passing the time by being productive with others, and just being in an environment that I feel I belonged in. Not only that but honing in on streaming skills and even broadcasting.
It irritates me that CSUDH is barely going under immense construction. The forever gaps between classes could have been filled with me playing video games in an awesome new esports lab rather than me sitting in my car playing “Clash Royale” for three hours. Driving home was not an option either because living in deep Orange County made it not worth it.
I feel as though I missed a great opportunity to connect with like-minded peers who were as into gaming as I’ve always been. Instead of spending countless hours at the Ikea down the street to pass the time, I could have been forming relationships with a variety of new people who were also honing their gaming skills at the esports club.
I know that it’s no one else’s fault but my own, but not knowing about the esports club until the beginning of this semester makes me feel even worse.
Why wasn’t I in the loop? How did I not see this club during the rush week in my earlier years at CSUDH? Questions like these upset me to this day because if I’m barely finding out about this club this semester, who knows what other clubs I’ve missed out on.
Even if I were to join the club during my last few months at CSUDH, it would not feel the same due to everything being fully remote because of COVID-19.
Since graduation for me is just right around the corner, this missed opportunity will be another “L” that I will have to just live with. Despite not joining the club or being able to experience the esports lab, there is one positive outcome that I did learn: be more engaged with your surroundings, you never know what you’re missing out on.