With a newly built room and brand-new equipment, the Simpson esports club is ready to get back into the game.  

The esports room can now be found south of Station Square in the old Goodwill building on the east side of campus. 

As the club continues to grow in numbers, a room where they can effectively practice is essential.  

“Just recently we’ve gotten our computers built for our esports space on campus,” said Seth Larson, esports’ public relations chairman. “We are still waiting on one motherboard for one of the computers, but our space is pretty much complete.” 

Paige O’Connor, treasurer for esports, believes this new place and computers will allow for members to build a stronger bond with one another, which ultimately leads to better gameplay. 

“It really helps being together because not only does it enhance communication, but it also allows us to build synergy between each other,” said O’Connor, “and when we have that synergy it really allows us to be a more well-rounded team, we all just play together a lot better.” 

Now that the room is near completion, members can begin preparing for tournaments. 

“We started off pretty strong last semester, then towards the end of it, we just weren’t practicing as much as we should’ve been, and we weren’t super focused on how we should be improving,” Larson said. “We were winning a lot, so we just kind of took those wins and were like ‘OK, we don’t really have to do anything ‘cause if we keep playing like this, we’ll keep winning.’ But I guess the opponents we were playing against improved a lot throughout the season while we just kind of stood stagnant.”

Members compete through the GG leagues where they can join different leagues, play online matches and participate in in-person finals. 

The club registered again to play League of Legends for the spring season, so they hope it results in a better outcome than last semester. 

“Hopefully we’ll come at it this semester with a lot more passion and a lot more fire in our bellies, and hopefully do a lot better in the playoffs,” Larson said.

Larson said he believes the club will be planning some events on campus soon. Last year, they hosted a viewing party for the League of Legends World Championship in Black Box Theater, so they hope to do something similar or an open-house type of event. 

“There’s actually a couple of events off campus that we are looking into traveling for. I believe there’s a UNI event in February, there’s another event in Cedar Falls in April that we’re looking into and there’s a couple of events in and around Des Moines that we’re looking into right now,” Larson said.

The club has many opportunities to compete, it is just a matter of what their budget will allow them to travel to. 

General meetings are currently on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., but this may be open for change after electing new officers.