Students play games in the casual gaming area of Ithaca College's Esports Lounge. Photo by Natalie Curry and Mackenzie Torelli. A gamer from a young age, Johnson had narrowed his college choices to a final decision between IC and Hofstra. Both schools had esports clubs, and he emailed students from each school to find out more. Yes, it was small, but it was growing, and he could join a Rocket League team immediately. The esports industry provides dozens of career on-ramps for recent college graduates, from broadcasting and game development to business and marketing, skills the new Esports Lounge will invite students to experiment with and practice.
The loungeβthe realization of a longtime collaboration among staff, faculty, and students in information technology, facilities, campus recreation, the Roy H. It also features an adjoining two-person broadcast booth that enables the club to livestream its games and students to produce professional esports broadcasts. At his previous post at Keuka College, he and his colleagues coordinated a gaming tournament.
Hogan was eager to do something similar at IC, and when he put out feelers, he learned that there was not only tremendous appetite but that Sean Reilley and Brad Buchanan in the Office of Campus Recreation were also exploring possibilities. The conversations started in , and the project received funding and planning in Construction for the original esports room was completed in early spring , but students did not return that semester due to the COVID outbreak.
Esports viewers watch livestreams and depend on the casters to make the games easier to follow and more exciting. The content created around esports broadcasting entertains its massive audience, and compelling streamers have built their own brands and cultivated millions of followers. To borrow lingo from League of Legends, Ithaca College students delivered an alpha strike and made quite the first impression for fans.
The new Esports Lounge occupies a space originally created as a computer lab that saw dwindling usage by students over the years, due to the ubiquitousness of laptops. The first things a visitor to the space encounters is the aforementioned trophy case with plenty of room for future hardware to join the two Rocket League titles and a sleek reception desk equipped with LEDs and incorporating a branded circuit board motif that is repeated throughout the space.
