Esports arena looks to level up Junction City
Junction City (KSNT) - Gamers will have a new space to call home in the Midwest very soon.
In just a few weeks, an Esports arena will open at the 12th Street Community Center in Junction City, bringing gaming and life skills to the Sunflower State.
"Traditional sports you can go as a team captain whether you're a volleyball player or whether you're a football captain you can put it on your resume, and it will impact your hiring as a team leader." Esports Coordinator for Junction City, Aaron Sheltrown said. "If you put Esports on there, as it's a new and developing system it does not mean a whole lot to maybe a older generation that do not understand what the talents are."
Sheltrown and the Twisters, the newest Esports team, are looking to showcase those talents at the local level in a big way.
"Having something like this in Junction City is absolutely amazing," Sheltrown said. "It's not just about a person playing a game, it's not about age or gender, it's not about a physical type of body. It's about talent that can come in and fill that need."
Creating this space for those in the Junction City community is major, it's already given one local gamer a reason to stay.
"I grew up coming here every summer," Junction City resident, Marionneaux Dupree said. "Me and my twin brother would come to the rec center for the Boys and Girls Club. We had a computer lab here, but nothing like this. It didn't have the opportunities or the learning capabilities that we have now."
In addition to creating a space for gamers to compete at a high level, the other focus for the arena will be growing real world skills.
"Everybody sees a player playing a game but they don't understand what it takes to actually support the team," Sheltrown said. "Whether it's production or if it's content management, storyboarding. It's a powerful thing to let someone come in and shape their future. That could be very simply, 'Oh, I like broadcasting maybe I want to be a sports broadcaster,' or, 'I like editing videos, maybe I just want to edit videos and learn more about that,' and we can point them into the right direction so it can help shape their future."
"Kids can come in and learn how to edit, what does it take to be a good gamer, how do I master this one character," Dupree said, "there's people that will be around that knows what's going on with gaming alone. There's an opportunity to learn about skill sets you can take home with you."
The grand opening for the gaming space is set for mid-April, keep an eye on the Twisters Facebook page for the official start date. That's also where you can get the latest updates on team tryouts, which will include League of Legends, Call of Duty, Tekken 8 and much more.
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