\u2018Flight Deck\u2019 esports arena<\/a>, designed for competitions and community events. The space features gaming computers, consoles and a broadcasting room for livestreams or other airings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nA newer phenomenon, Cody Rooke, a member of the Overwatch team, said: because regular sports have been in the public eye for much longer, there are more resources available for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, we\u2019re kind of our own coaches, we\u2019re our own staff,\u201d Rooke said. \u201cYou\u2019re the one looking for practice. You have to find other players to scrimmage against. So it puts a lot more responsibility on the players to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quion Lillie, a member of the fighting game community (FGC), said someone has to be a part of the club to understand eSports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is literally electronic sports, so by definition alone, it kind of has to give the credit it\u2019s deserved,\u201d Lillie said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that goes into playing these games\u2026it takes a lot to be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Raffier, president of UNF eSports, said at first, he was insecure about joining the club because of the \u201cgaming in a basement\u201d stereotype.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout Raffier\u2019s years with UNF eSports, he\u2019s seen the club grow not just in numbers but in talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs people have been getting more involved, the club itself has been getting more and more skilled players,\u201d Raffier said. \u201cIt feels like the more people that come in and the more that skills grow, the community gets more and more tight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The esports arena\u2019s impact on the club<\/p>\n
Now, however, with the addition of the \u2018Flight Deck,\u2019 the school\u2019s new eSports arena, Raffier expects more talented players to encounter the club and potentially join.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the topic of talent, event coordinator and Rocket League officer William Schmidt said he\u2019s found a couple of people who are qualified at the game, which he called a \u201cvery mechanically intensive game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really great for the future,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the first time I think that, as [Raffier] said, we\u2019re getting closer and closer and more tight-knit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the arena, the club would have to reserve space at ballrooms or other venues, competing with other clubs for valuable space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the ballrooms were taken almost immediately,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cThat was hard for us because we\u2019re a very technology-focused club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previously, the club lacked access to projectors, preventing slideshows and other presentations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of invalidated the club a little in the way, in the sense that we just didn\u2019t have the full potential of the club,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cThe space really helped us to have a place that is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past, the club would meet at different locations, making it less accessible and consistent for new people who wanted to join.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that people are able to visually see that we have a space for us, it\u2019s going to definitely bring in more traction,\u201d Lillie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, the FGC team does weekend rumble tournaments at Founders Hall. With their own space, the club can now meet and practice at one location.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot more people will come through now that they know there is now a place that is easily accessible to them to learn more information, play games and have fun,\u201d Lillie said.<\/p>\n
A couple of years ago, Raffier heard rumors about the arena from a previous president.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like, \u2018Hey guys, just keep this on the down low, but this is about to get a whole lot more official,\u201d Raffier said, describing what he heard. \u201cThis is going to get more real, like this is not just going to be a club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Esports Arena reactions<\/p>\n
Last Friday, Raffier said he was emotional after finally seeing the finished product. Raiffer helped work with IT services to set up the space for future events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told one of my coworkers, they almost started tearing up because it just felt official,\u201d Raffier said. \u201cIt felt like something that I care so deeply about is now being supported by a facility from the university.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rooker first saw the esports arena, he was impressed with the turnout at the grand opening. Rooker said more students want to be involved, and Raffier is looking to add more leagues from different games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was really cool, just seeing the amount of interest not only from students, but people in the industry, people in the area, the mayor,\u201d Rooker said. \u201cIt was really cool that we have this city behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, the club has teams for Overwatch, Valorant, League of Legends, fighting games and Rocket League.<\/p>\n
While members prioritize leveling up and improving their skills, they also game for fun, do schoolwork together and hang out outside of class or practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo show that we\u2019re not just focused on our craft, we\u2019re actually being student-athletes in a sense,\u201d Lillie said. \u201cI do enjoy the fact that it is more towards that community aspect and not a personal focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, March 7, the Flight Deck, in coordination with UNF eSports, will host a countywide Mario Kart tournament open to high school students in Duval County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
For more information or news tips, or if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the lack of exercise, the University of North Florida eSports Club believes that it is a sport.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-179968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}