If you've been keeping up with the gaming scene in the last few years, you've likely seen how much Esports has grown. Ontario Tech has had an Esports community for years, but more recently, we've unveiled our brand-new Esports arena!

The new arena is the perfect place to go get your "victory royale". Whether you prefer roleplaying games (RPGs), first-person shooters (FPS) or anything in between, there's definitely a game for everyone—just don't expect these pros to go easy on you!

Try-outs

Anyone can join the Ontario Tech Esports community and find some new friends to play with. However, joining the Esports team is no easy feat; you have to be as good at video games as Mario is at saving the Princess. So, grab your mushrooms and 1-ups, and let's talk about their admission process. 

Each team has its own set of standards you have to meet before you can join. For example, if you want to join the Valorant team, you'll have to be a certain rank and then also try out so the team can see if you would be a good fit. They will be looking for various things including gameplay style, communication skills and more. 

As it is with physical sports, you have to have a bit of skill to make the team and this is no different. However, you aren't limited to being good at only one game. The Esports team competes in a variety of games including:

• Beat Saber

• Call of Duty

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

• Eternal Return

• Fortnite

• Hearthstone

• League of Legends

• Overwatch 2

• Rainbow Six Siege

• Rocket League

• Valorant

These are the games that the members play competitively, however, they do have casual game nights in their Discord server for anyone to join. Some of the games include Among Us, Jackbox and Super Smash Bros!

Why you should choose this team

Ontario Tech's Esports members clearly know their stuff! They've won several notable achievements competing in collegiate events such as NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports). They've placed top eight in many competitions and almost got to travel to the United States for a competition. Not only is this an amazing team with great gaming opportunities but also just a great way to make new friends, connect with the community and becoming more involved with student life! 

The Arena

The Esports arena is available for anyone to stop in and play games on their amazing PCs. The arena is open (and free to attend) from Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and until 1 p.m. on Fridays.

There is an hour limit to make sure everyone gets a chance to play, but on slower days, they'll extend your time a bit! 

The PC's

Not just any PC is used in the arena, the arena has amazing PCs that can't be beaten. These computers are up to date with the latest and best components including:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x

• GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070

• Ram: 32 GB @ 3200Mhz

Hypertec sent all the parts the team wanted and then a few members of the community set them all up for everyone to use! Since the members got to choose the parts and build each PC themselves you can be certain these computers are some of the best you'll ever game on!

For those of you who don't know what any of that high-tech talk means it's basically the technological way of saying: These are really good gaming computers! 

The Esports community is rapidly growing and anyone is welcome to join whether you're a professional gamer or just casual! You can be sure to find a place in Ontario Tech's Esports community and make great memories with fantastic people!

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