Arizona Esports Arena allowing gamers place to play and compete

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Arizona Esports Arena is now open to the public. The arena, a high-tech computer lab, is offering gamers a chance to play and and even learn about a career in gaming.

“You don’t have to really think about anything you just go in and play,” Heaven Phillips, UA Freshman said. “It’s really fun.”

Phillips uses the Esports Arena recreationally during her downtime between classes. The arena is open to the public during the week. You can pay to play with costs starting at $4 an hour.

“I noticed recently that a lot more people are starting to game and before it was kinda like something that you would get made fun of,” Phillips said. “They’d be like, oh you’re such a nerd, but like now it’s become something that everyone is doing.”

Currently the university has seven varsity student gaming teams that compete against other colleges across the country. But it’s not all about fun and games, the arena is also helping students get into the gaming career field.

“So even though game design has become a thing, they are also developing marketing classes, engineering classes,” Kevin Buchmiller, Operations Manager at Arizona Esports Arena said. “For anybody who is looking to get involved in video games, there’s going to be an avenue available, if it’s not already, it will be soon.

This semester the University of Arizona is launching one class that will give you school credit for playing.

“Age of Empires is a great game that has just released their content and right now the history department is allowing for you to play through the campaign of that game,” Buchmiller said. “Do some class related objectives with that campaign and once you finish that class ,you earn history credit.”

For more information on the Arizona Esports Arena, click here.

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