MUNCIE, Ind. – A club on Ball State’s campus continues to strive through the pandemic. Cardinal Esports is a club for competitive and recreational gamers. Despite being competitive, President Nathan Valdez described it as more of a community than a varsity sport.
“That way each student on campus has a way to connect to other gamers or people who have similar game-styles,” Valdez said.
The community has reached over 600 people on their discord server. Students can connect with others through voice and text chat on the server, something Director of Esports Dan Marino said he is thankful for.
“You can be your authentic self in a lot of ways with Esports. One of the great things about it is that you can build community especially in times like now,” Marino said.
Students mentioned that it was their way of making lifelong friendships. For some, like Vice President Sam Eldridge, it was an opportunity to explore new career paths like esports broadcast production. An activity Marino said could be offered as a major at Ball State soon.
“What we’re doing at Ball State for the next few semesters, is to develop that Esports production piece. Esports production is one of the biggest, fastest growing areas because there’s so much demand to consume that content,” Marino said.
Construction started on the cardinal esports team’s new facility last semester. The location will feature a stage for competitions and an area for production students. The facility will also be open for public student use. The space will have 24 stations with high-end computers capable of handling the newest programs from gaming to editing.
