UC Irvine planning to launch the first ever college Esports arena

Basketball arenas, Football fields, swimming pools and the likes are sights we’re used to seeing in colleges and schools, but what about Esports arenas? UC Irvine university is making history by introducing the very first gaming arena in a school ever.

The University of California Irvine’s esports arena is set to open Sept. 23, giving the school’s competitive gaming teams and communities access to 80 high-end computers and consoles providing them with everything they need for competitive gaming.

“We did a survey of our student body the last few months and we decided to load all the best games that people enjoy,” Deppe said. “A lot of team games like Counter-Strike and Left for Dead, Blizzard titles like Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. And League of Legends of course.” said Mark Deppe, UC Irvine’s acting director of esports.

The arena was created with financial and consultation support from Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends. Along with the arena is UC Irvine’s first recognized esports team in League of Legends, which Deppe said includes 10 players with $5,600 scholarships, a coaching staff and analysts. The first season will be a testing ground for esports’ growth at UC Irvine, but if it works Deppe said they would highly consider adding teams in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Overwatch and Hearthstone. The school currently holds a national title in Melee and won Tespa’s Overwatch Summer Series.

It’s not all fun and games. The arena is at a school, so it does have academic and research functions on the effects of gaming for the students and how working as teams improve real life skills. The arena won’t be exclusive to members of the Esports team, part of the space will use a PC cafe model; non-team students and the public can pay $4 an hour to use the computers and play their games.

Playing games at school…what a time to be alive!