An Esports club is on its way to UNF, promising a competitive campus gaming experience.

Graduate student and president of the new club Luis Puesan talked about why UNF gamers should be excited.

He wanted to start the club since he was a senior last spring, but couldn’t because he wasn’t a student anymore. He re-enrolled this semester to work on a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration. He feels like he has enough Esports experience to be the president of the club and even compete with other colleges.

“The interesting thing about Esports is unlike basketball or football, Esports is like an overarching genre,” said Puesan.

Esports involves a wide variety of games that include competitive shooters, fighting, and MOBAs. Because of this, he is confident that at least 100 students around campus would have an interest.

The club created a Facebook Group and a Discord chat server for members to join online. Right away, around 35-40 applied to join. Since then, been he’s getting more and more members to join the club before it has even opened.

The club’s sponsor is Professor Elizabeth Gregg, who is the chair of Sports Management, Leadership, & School Counseling at the College of Education & Human Services. She is interested to see the growth of the club and wants to see what Puesan can do for it.

Puesan wants to let UNF students compete both with other universities, and nationwide depending on the game.

“For “Super Smash Bros.,” the main goal would be: once a semester, we send students to one of the Super Majors, where around 500 to 1,000 people come to compete. [There are] usually a couple of the top five best players that attend those. So I think that by sending the top five UNF students wearing jerseys, I definitely think it would bring school exposure It shows the school supports Esports,” said Puesan. 

There will be other games involved in the club including “Overwatch,” “League of Legends,” and “Dragon Ball FighterZ.” So, gamers of all tastes will be included to join the league.

He also said having an Esports club markets the university to people who haven’t heard of UNF and would put it on the map towards other gamers.

When asked if this meant that UNF would have an official Esports team, he says that it would just be the team for UNF’s club.

“It’s not like we’re doing athletics, we’re just a club representing UNF in these online tournaments,” said Puesan

While Puesan has all of the paperwork taken care of, there’s still more work to be done. Treasurer and Vice President Scarlett Hagmeier is working on the logo for the club. He’s still in the process of planning events, contacting the Tespa League, and still waiting for an in-person meeting with all of people interested in the club.

Puesan thinks there will be some events this semester, but the club will really take off full force in the summer. If you are interested in joining, visit the Facebook page here.

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