COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M Esports Twitter account revealed Wednesday, Nov. 15 that university President M. Katherine Banks announced that Texas A&M University is in negotiations with the City of College Station to lease out a new esports facility.
The location under negotiation is reportedly in the Post Oak Mall in College Station, with the Macy's store at the mall a potential target for the new facility.
According to the announcement, President Banks revealed about two months ago that "Esports was in the University's future".
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many turned to video games when restrictions were put into place in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. While casual video game titles saw their fair share of increased player numbers, esports--or competitive video games--boomed.
In fact, some of the biggest esports competitions that take place throughout the year feature staggering cash prizes and/or trophies, top talent from countries around the world, professional stages with full live event production, on-air-talent, event staff, visual effects, and more.
In some cases, a select few who have proven their prowess against the best in their region, area, and even country can make a living playing games as either a competitor or an online streaming personality through a few prominent game livestreaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Gaming, or another livestreaming site.
Nearly all competitive esport titles are played by Texas A&M students, from the most popular games in the world that see six to seven figure player numbers daily, to games that are only played by a small handful of devout players who share a unique passion kindled by few.
