Catholic University’s eSports Community -

By Anthony Curioso

The Catholic University of America eSports community has its home base in an offshoot room attached to the Pryzbyla Center’s Food Court. It is one of the few organizations whose home base in the Pryz has remained unchanged during the building’s ongoing renovations.

The CUA eSports community consists of a few teams, including Valorant, League of Legends, and Rocket League, which compete with eSports teams at other universities in the DMV region. The eSports Lounge is also home to many people who play games for fun. CUA’s eSports community has several Windows PCs and a TV with a few gaming consoles in its lounge for anyone who wants to stop by to play their favorite video games. The eSports lounge allows students to play just about any video game, even if no competitive team currently exists for a specific game.

Daniel Pekalak, a senior psychology major and eSports president, explained the resources the lounge offers students.

“We have the resources for people to play any games they want,” Pekalak said. “We would just need people to say that they want to compete in a certain game and ask us to make an esports team out of it.”

The eSports lounge is open for students between 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

Odalys Campos, a junior chemistry major and the Esports marketing director, shared that her involvement in the Esports club began at the end of her freshman year.

“I knew about our esports all through freshman year, but didn’t really have the courage to venture into the lounge,” Campos said. “At the end of the school year, I applied for the marketing executive position and got it. That’s when I fully dove into being involved with eSports on campus: through making flyers for events and helping out with our Valorant team. Now, I’m fully focused on marketing.”

The general perception of eSports among Americans is that they do not count as sports; a U.S. District Court stated as much in a February 2023 case in Florida. However, Pekalak believes that according to the definition of “sport,” eSports qualifies as a sport.

“A lot of the competitive nature that takes place in sports also occurs in a competitive video game,” Pekalak said. “Playing a video game can cause just as much exertion as in more physical sports, and there is just as much injury risk with eSports as with other sports. Furthermore, there are many physical sports that people play as individuals, and there are also many video games that people play in teams.”

CUA’s eSports community has consistently drawn large crowds of people to its events, something Pekalak and Campos take great pride in. Those who are interested in getting involved with eSports are encouraged to join the organization on the Nest or join the community Discord server.