Kutztown University Dedicates New Esports Arena
Kutztown University’s esports team has a new home. The university dedicated its Esports Arena in McFarland Student Union Thursday morning with state-of-the-art equipment to serve as the new home of KU’s esports team.
KU’s Esports Arena, located at 157 MSU, features 14 Lenovo Legion T730 Windows 10 computers with I9 Core Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 video card, gaming keyboard, Logitech gaming mouse, Sennheiser GSP 350 headset and wired Razer Wolverine Tournament Edition gamepad. There are also two 75″ displays – one for each team – connected to the coach’s workstation.
Personalized Xpression Gaming Chairs from ZipChair feature the KU esports logo, fully-recline, have memory foam pillows for the back and head and fully-adjustable arms with gel cushioning.
The project cost approximately $250,000, funded by the MSU fee paid by all students.
“Today marks the culmination of the creation of a home venue for our Esports Team, which has been a part of our campus since 2018,” said Kutztown University president, Dr. Kenneth S. Hawkinson. “The boom of esports across the country was the impetus for us to invest in a state-of-the-art facility at KU.”
The space is available daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for open gaming.
“Ever since I started playing games competitively around 2012, a project such as this has been a dream of mine,” esports student club president Connor Ellis said. “Everyday, to stand in this room is truly a living dream to me – it is truly surreal.”
Esports officially began at KU in August 2018. Teams compete against other universities across the country, including regional teams from Penn State, Slippery Rock, Drexel, Arcadia, Edinboro, Lafayette, among others, across eight games: Rainbow Six Siege, League of Legends, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Overwatch, Rocket League, Magic: The Gathering Arena, Hearthstone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
More than 170 colleges and universities currently participate in eSports nationwide.
For more information and how to get involved, contact Ellis at celli788@live.kutztown.edu.
