In six years, the gaming and esports communities at Central Washington University have grown

tremendously. From split-screen Rocket League tournaments in a small SURC room to community-wideSuper Smash Bros tournaments in the SURC Theater, I have seen many variations of programs centered around video games.

I am a Graduate student at CWU, and I am now in my 6 th year of attendance here. Like many others,gaming has been a constant passion of mine throughout each year. I have had the pleasure of competing in intramural tournaments since 2017. While the programs were small, CWU students always showed up, ready to compete. In 2020, all student programs took a hit from the COVID-19 Pandemic. In-person events were cancelled, and online programs began to develop. Just days after campus was shut down, former Intramural Sports Coordinator Shana Kessler created the CWU Recreation Discord Server.

The Recreation department hosted a few online tournaments, and the server began to grow every day.

In under 3 years, this Discord server has reached nearly 600 members. At the end of the 2020-2021 school year, myself and two other students were hired into the Intramural

Sports staff, with our focus being set on esports. We developed at least 4 in-person tournaments each quarter, with additional online tournaments during breaks. These tournaments helped establish the gaming community and led to the growth of the Discord server. 

The Recreation Department began to create an inventory of equipment and supplies, all to support the intramural tournaments. The Recreation team worked with the SURC Event Staff in planning these tournaments, and we worked up to hosting events with a broadcast being streamed on Twitch.

The next step towards developing an esports program at CWU has been made. We have developed an esports club. This club operates as an official sports club, and we currently have teams competing against other schools in Rocket League, Valorant, League of Legends, and Super Smash Bros. With these teams competing, there is a clear need for a team facility. Other schools who have developed their program with the support of an esports facility have a clear competitive advantage. At this time, our teams are forced to practice and compete remotely with their own equipment.

There is a clear precedence for an esports facility to be developed at CWU. Other schools such as University of Washington, Washington State University, and Western Washington University have all built esports facilities for their gaming community, and they have shown massive success and approval from students. With our teams competing in the same events as these universities, we inherit a disadvantage in comparison to their programs. Esports facilities at any given university have proven to generate revenue and increase student engagement.

As a major advocate for the esports programs at CWU, it is my responsibility to plea to our executive staff for this facility. No matter what the upfront cost of development poses, our students deserve a home for esports. This program that has been successful in every year of my attendance, and even if I am gone by the time a facility is developed, more students will come, and the passion for this program will remain.