This past week, Elizabethtown College made way for a new club on campus. The recently-formed Gamer’s Club kicked off the spring semester with a video game-themed event. On Friday, Feb. 21, the club hosted their first event, featuring a video game tournament with Mario Kart games in Hoover.
The president of the club, sophomore Dante Weikel, assisted with a lot of the planning and development for the club. “The idea to start the club came when some friends wanted to play larger-scale Halo games, especially with Grifball,” Weikel said. “We had to stick with two-versus-two matches or free-for-alls, and the thought has always been in our heads of getting a larger group of people to play with us and have fun.”
Sophomore and vice president David Gallop credited most of the creation of the club to Weikel. “He originally had the idea and has been the driving force behind the club,” Gallop said. “As for who helped, all of the officers have put a lot of work in to make this all happen.”
The Gamer’s Club was founded for students as an escape during their stressful lives by providing an outlet through video games. “The goal of the club is to provide a relaxing, stress-free and fun environment on campus,” Weikel said. “The club typically has three rooms, and we will host casual gaming nights.” A few casual games, such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, Slender: The Arrival, Grand Theft Auto and Castle Crashers, were on the list for future events. “We will also do competitive tournaments, which might include games like Halo, Call of Duty, Goldeneye, Madden or BattleBlock Theater,” Weikel said.
For their first event, the club hosted an evening of Mario Kart. “We had three generations of the game being played,” Gallop said. “One was on the Nintendo 64, one was on the Gamecube and one was on the Wii.” Weikel commented on the students’ interest and enjoyment of the first event. “It was definitely a great experience,” he said.
“We had a great turnout and, as far as I know, everyone had fun playing the Mario Kart games we had. It seemed like Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Double Dash were the most popular of the night, so we’ll definitely keep that in mind for future events.” Gallop also said, “The participants all seemed to really enjoy the event, with different groups playing together and switching between game consoles.”
Concerning future success of the club, both officers hope for knowledge of the club to spread. “I really hope the club will gain even more popularity in the future and possibly even collaborate with other groups on campus to put together some great events,” Gallop said.
In addition to garnering a larger club membership, the officers also hope to keep the club going for future students. “My goals for the club consist of having the club survive after we’re gone, getting this to be something a lot of people can enjoy for a long time,” Weikel said.
Weikel stated that the club appeals to students through many different mediums. “Video gaming has become mainstream,” Weikel said. “It’s become a full-on industry. To me, it’s the synergy of math, science and art and can be appreciated in a number of ways by anyone. I think this club can appeal to players for the fun these games can cause, the relaxing atmosphere they can create, the pure adrenaline rush of screaming at your foes like a barbarian as you exterminate them with a rocket-launcher. For the spectators, I feel like they get to witness an action-packed movie. Whether it’s Italian plumbers racing and throwing turtle shells at each other or cyborg humanoids blasting each other away, they get to witness all the action and socialize at the same time, which is another thing we want.” One of the goals of this club is to create at atmosphere where both participants and spectators that share an appreciation for video games can gather an alleviate stress.
The club has a few events lined up in the future for gamers around campus. “We’ll be hosting a buy-in Halo tournament, with two teams of four battling up the bracket for a cash prize. The Halo game will be decided the night of the tournament.
Teams can sign up, but there will also be free agents.” The club’s Halo tournament will be held on Saturday, March 15, and there will be an event with Call of Duty and Goldeneye on Friday, March 21.
