Weber State University has a collection of esports teams, including League of Legends, Rocket League, Valorant, Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Despite this, Weber State has only a few esports labs.
Esports labs are similar to computer labs, but students are encouraged to play video games on them.
There is an esports lab located in room 108 in the University Village Community Center and a smaller one in the Wattis Business building.
The University Village location has 16 PC gaming setups, a 65-inch TV for console gaming and a few tables for tabletop gaming as well. The lab in Wattis has 12 setups.
All setups have a computer and monitor, a wired gaming mouse, a keyboard and noise-canceling headphones.
The University Village lab is staffed by student employees, many of which compete on the varsity esports teams.
Like many other computer labs on campus, the computers will reset when turned off and delete any programs not set to stay. This means esports gamers can download whatever game they want to play onto the computers and not have to worry about taking up too much space on the school’s computers.
On some occasions, the University Village lab will hold events like Extra Life, where gamers from WSU esports teams and fraternities participate in a 24-hour nationwide charity livestream. People can sign up as a team and livestream on Twitch for 24 hours straight to help raise money for charity.
The Discord for those interested in gaming or who would like to join a team is https://discord.gg/wMdbVtyNRS.
There are varsity teams, as well as club teams, which are more casual.
Those who play competitively for the school or work behind the scenes to help the teams succeed, like coaches, team managers and broadcasters, are all eligible for scholarships. These scholarships can range up to full tuition.
To qualify for these scholarships, gamers must try out for their preferred game and be a full-time WSU student.
Tryouts start at the beginning of each semester and the schedule for those are located on the Discord.
“I think that the most interesting thing about it is that it’s open to all students,” Tyler Oelling, Weber’s coordinator of esports said. “So having that access, a lot of schools who have esports programs, they typically have their labs completely shut off, and then only the varsity players get to use them. In this scenario, all students get to play even if they are not on a team, and I think that’s pretty interesting for Weber.”
