Marshall’s casual gaming club will be merging with the eSports program to form a single gaming club this week.   

  “The idea was to cater to casual video game lovers while (also emphasizing) the competitive side of gaming,” said President Cameron Campbell of Level Up! Gaming Events, which will combine with Esports Club Association. “We realized there’s a lot of overlap between those two communities, and there isn’t any reason for there not to be a community comprised of both casual and competitive players. Plus, both parties benefit. Level Up! is getting access to more resources and staff and the ECA is becoming the centralized gaming community for Marshall.” 

Compared to the Esports Club Association, Level-Up!’s has fewer members and often had difficulty with attendance during meetings. Previously, members of Level-Up! needed to bring their own controllers and had to sign up in order to use Marshall’s monitors ahead of time. As a result of this merger, Level-Up! members will now readily have access to game consoles, monitors and controllers, making planning and setting up events a much easier process. In addition, Level Up! as a club can now offer a wider variety of events and more prizes to be won. 

As expected, there exist a variety of attitudes and perspectives towards gaming, each of which will be appealed to via events that best suit the players’ interests.  

“The competitive aspect is what is able to capture my attention the most, helping me to think about something other than school/work/other responsibilities for at least a little bit,” ImObvi, a Halo Infinite player for the ECA, said. “The drive to get better at the game through competition is 100% the biggest factor in keeping me playing.” 

This large change and shift in dynamic has led to some concerns among members, though. However, Campbell confidently assures that higher numbers will lead to more interesting and enriching experiences.  
“I can entirely understand the fear that Level Up! may lose some personal touch, but the reality is that it’ll be the same as it always was—just with more people to meet,” Campbell said. “Extroverts are going to love the larger events and introverts will likely find opportunities in smaller scale events with less unfamiliar faces.” 

The transition will be completed by the end of this week. Those who are interested in joining can contact the ECA at [email protected].