Now open: UAA Esports Lounge is officially live

View a slideshow of the UAA Esports Lounge grand opening.

At the UAA Student Union, you can snuggle up to a warm fire with a good book, rent gear for your next outdoor adventure or sign up for any number of student clubs. Now you can add coming in first place on the Rainbow Road track of Mario Kart to that list. 

Oct. 7 saw the opening of the new UAA Esports Lounge, a hub for students and the public to engage in competitive and casual gaming featuring top-of-the-line PCs and video game consoles. The lounge's opening comes off the heels of a soft opening on Aug. 26.

"The soft opening has been great. We have lots of students and community members coming in and out of the Esports Lounge and they're just really excited to see something new and shiny on campus," said Adrianna McCoy, Esports Lounge manager and president of the UAA Esports Club. "It brings in a different demographic of students. I've seen a lot of people I've never seen before and they spend hours in the lounge. I hope it continues to bring new faces to campus."

Visitors to the Esports Lounge can access 18 high-end PCs, a PlayStation 4 with accompanying virtual reality headset, an Xbox One and two Nintendo Switches. There are currently more than two dozen games on hand including competitive multiplayer games like League of Legends (LoL), group party mainstays like Fortnite and single-player experiences like Minecraft. 

To use the lounge, visitors must first create an account at the Student Union Information Desk. The lounge is free to use for UAA students enrolled in at least three credit hours. UAA staff and faculty, and the general public are also welcome to play for a small fee. Additionally, the space is also open to high school esports teams to use the space to hold tournaments or practice sessions.

Esports refers to competitive professional video game playing, which has exploded in recent years. The billion dollar industry now encompasses world cups, state finals, team sponsorships, athletic scholarships, and other benchmarks traditionally associated with sports like football and basketball. 

In terms of viewership, the 2018 World Championship for LoL - the premiere tournament for esports' most popular game - garnered an estimated 205.4 million viewers from around the world across television and streaming platforms. The 2018 Super Bowl estimated just 103.4 million viewers.

The timing of the lounge's opening is even more perfect considering how esports has taken off in the Last Frontier. As early as 2018, dozens of high schools in the Anchorage School District, Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, Yukon-Koyukuk School District and Raven Homeschool system have rolled out or are planning to roll out their own esports programs, partnering with national organizations like the Electronic Gaming Federation and PlayVS.

Created in less than a year, the Esports Lounge was set in motion after UAA administrators recognized a trend in students using a vacant space on the second floor of the Student Union to play games on their own computers. Interim assistant director for the Student Union and campus programming Cody Buechner approached the Esports Club about the prospect of converting the space into the Esports Lounge. Buechner and the Esports Club then secured funding by pitching and receiving sponsorships from local organizations including Resource Data and the Alaska Army National Guard.

"The Student Union, Student Life and Leadership department, and Division of Student Affairs strive to engage students and provide opportunities for them to develop holistically as they succeed in the collegiate environment," said Buechner. "With regards to the Esports Lounge, we aim to include those of our students and our community who seek involvement and activities in the ever-growing technology industry. We are encouraged by the incredible patronage of the space thus far and look forward to hosting our community in the years to come!"

Written by Matt Jardin, UAA Office of University Advancement