WSU Esports club hosted the Fall Fest Open Local Access Network (LAN) event Saturday afternoon in conjunction with other gaming clubs. The event ran for eight hours and provided entertainment, food and prizes to those who paid the $5 entry fee.

In recent pop culture, technology has become an essential part of everyday activities and people have made hobbies and careers during this era of new advancements with esports being part of this movement.

Esports is about gamers creating communities based around playing particular video games and competing sometimes nationwide using skill, reaction times, strategy and adaptive awareness.

Riding a newer wave in the sports community, esports isn’t the most popular or recognized, but it’s growing popularity and devoted fans along with players keep the trend of gaming for viewership alive.

Like early boxing matches and baseball games, video game athletics is gaining distribution in broadcasted media and live open arena events. The WSU Esports club is a part of this growing nation of gamers.

Esports club President Bobby Belter, a junior at WSU studying computer science, shined some light on what the LAN club event was all about.

“It’s a way to describe everyone on the same internet connection,” Belter said. “Traditionally they’re ran where everybody plays on a local game server” Belter said, “Any player can join. If you want to come [and participate in] open play and game by yourself that’s cool, it’s just hopefully more of a social event.”

The first meeting of the semester was held Saturday and attendance was high, there was just over 30 people there in the first hour. More people flowed in and out, while participating in different games like Super Smash Bros., Rocket League, and League of Legends just to name a few.

Even if players missed out on the event, don’t worry, there’s always opportunities to reach out to smaller single game clubs and there will be more LAN events in the future Belter said.

“We’re thinking about doing another event like this late October or early November, there are other [clubs] running at the end of November so we don’t want to interfere” Belter said, “If you’re a student and you want to do something competitive find some people and do it, if you need help get a hold of me and I will do my best to help you out.”

Anyone at any gaming skill level can join the club Belter said. There’s no pressure to join any teams but it’s encouraged to have fun and play with others. There are plenty of options if you are interested in joining teams or clubs of your own.

League of Legends club president Brett Beardsley spoke about his role as president and experience at the club since he started going as a freshman.

“Mostly I just run events like trying to get more community involvement, and getting our name out to the people” Beardsley said “I really like the atmosphere here, everybody enjoys pretty much the same stuff. It’s people getting to know each other and finding out what games they like to play… The best way to stay involved is throughout our Facebook page [LOL@WSU].”

It’s becoming readily available to view and broadcast Esports games. Online broadcasting networks like Twitch are helping Esports gain popularity and overall interest in playing. So if you are interested make sure to grab your keyboard and mouse and game on at the next Esports club event at WSU.