Expected to open for the start of the fall 2019 semester

Southeast Missouri State University to launch an eSports venue

The eSports venue will feature two banks of six personal computers facing each other. Director of Recreation Service Mike Buck says eSports have aggressively moved into the college environment.
2019-05-01
Reading time 2:03 min
The 1,500-square-foot space will feature 12 personal computers, two facing banks of six personal computers each, in a setup designed for competitive fantasy-type gaming. A 70-inch wall-mounted television will provide a a view of live games as they’re played in real-time. The venue will cost USD 100,000, and it will include gaming furniture for others to watch games in progress.

Southeast Missouri State University plans to develop an eSports venue starting in the fall, aimed at attracting both recreational and competitive players. The university says the venue will be in a 1,500-square-foot space currently occupied by a computer lab at the Towers Complex.

It will feature two banks of six personal computers facing each other. Video gaming will be available in another corner of the room with consoles for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo. A 70-inch wall-mounted television will provide a birds-eye view of live games being played in real-time in the space, and the venue will include gaming furniture for others to watch games in progress.

The eSports venue will cost USD 100,000. Half the cost is being paid by Student Government with the rest coming from the activity budget for Campus Life and Recreation Services. Nip Kelly Construction is the contractor for the project.

Bruce Skinner, Southeast Associate Vice President for Student Life, says students will be able to schedule the space through Recreation Sports for competitive and club sports events. “This is of interest to our students” and relatively easy to implement, he said, adding the space is being collaboratively funded by Student Government, Campus Life and Recreation Services using funds allocated for co-curricular and student life activities.

"What I've said to parents and others that raised that question is we're not showing something to students that they're not currently doing," Skinner explains. "They're already gaming in their rooms and their apartments.  What they have approached the campus with and what we've seen at other campuses is the ability to do that on a competitive level against peers, whether they be at other schools or in some cases in other parts of the globe."

Skinner says some schools are using eSports as a recruiting tool. He believes there's a possibility for students to use team gaming to explore statistics and mathematics, game development, or get practical experience preparing live stream broadcasts of competitions.

Director of Recreation Service Mike Buck says eSports have aggressively moved into the college environment. Southeast earlier this year created an eSports club that now has 60 members. The university also added eSports intramurals.

In addition, Recreation Services staff recently attending an eSports conference at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, followed by Southeast sending three students to St. Louis to compete March 1 in the ESPN101 FIFA Soccer tournament there.

Eric Redinger, associate director of Recreation Services, said ESPN101 extensively covered the event, and one participating Southeast student was interviewed on Twitch for about 10 minutes, with the piece receiving almost 3,000 viewers in real time.

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