The lobby was open for gamers and artists of all levels at the Esports Lounge for the first-ever Caps and Crafts, hosted by Associated Students on Thursday, Dec. 4.
As part of a new series ASI created called Titan XP, the activity-based event served as a bridge between the esports and the art program. Students were able to pick multiple individual keyboard keycaps out from bowls and use different colored paints to customize them.
“There’s a lot of gamers here that are actually super creative,” said Hailey Martinez, a fourth-year art major and ASI art programs and exhibits assistant. “We’ve found that this can actually be a makerspace and we wanted to transform it into that without actually gaming being involved, but in an interesting way.”
Students heavily concentrated on designing their pieces as the event also implemented a competition into the mix. The student or students with the most creative and outstanding keycaps won a Micro-Star International wireless keyboard, provided by MSI through their partnership with ASI.
Two tables were pushed together and covered in brown kraft paper for the students to place their keycaps. It was then divided in half to organize the entries for the competition.
One side, labeled “single key,” indicated entries for one singular keycap, while the other side, labeled “multiple keys,” included multiple keycaps on one plate. The slightly bigger keys were counted as multiple.
Each ASI member judged the pieces with a form they filled out to finalize their decision. Once every judge completed their form, they calculated the total to see which students won the prize. While the students waited for the results, a Christmas-themed photo booth was set up for them to get their picture taken on a Polaroid camera.
Samantha Cardona, a business and marketing graduate student, initially came downstairs in the Titan Student Union with her boyfriend to play pool but then saw the word “paint” on the Caps and Crafts poster, sparking the couple’s interest in what was being offered in the lounge.
“Since I saw paint in the little flyer, we like to paint, we do like pottery so we thought, ‘Why not paint some keycaps?’” Cardona said. “We might get our own little keyboard.”
The activity’s turnout was a success as students enjoyed spending time painting and designing their chosen keycaps while socializing with one another.
Joseline Herraur, a third-year art major, was recommended the event by a friend and said she was intrigued by the activity since it was related to art. What Herraur took away from the event was meeting other students in the same field of creativeness.
“There was lots of cool people around and we all talked and it was fun to interact with other people who liked being creative, it was super fun,” Herraur said.
ASI plans to host more Caps and Crafts events in the future as they aim for a different season or holiday based around that corresponding date. In the meantime, Martinez encouraged students to come check out the Esports Lounge and find other ways to get involved with the esports community at Cal State Fullerton.
“I know a lot of students might be intimidated by this space, it’s usually very loud in here and they’re a little intimidated to find their own place here,” Martinez said. “I recommend checking it out and making some friends on the Discord and coming to these sort of events where it’s very open, open-ended and you kind of get a sense for the community in the esports community.”