Thank you to everyone who attended our Triton Esports Center (TEC) Grand Opening Friday, March 4th! The event was a huge success with a variety of attendance from students, alumni, corporate sponsors and staff members; along with Chancellor Khosla , EVC Simmons and VCSA Satterlund.
The event allowed students and the campus community to come into TEC and play games in the space on our PCs and consoles. We gave away a ton of cool and exclusive UCSD Esports merch; raffled off prizes from Recreation, Turtle Beach/ROCCAT, and MSI; served donuts from Broad Street Dough Co and hot chocolate, coffee and tea from our TEC Cafe; and welcomed everyone to their newest community space on campus.
The Triton Esports Center, or TEC for short, is the new community space on campus designed to be the home of UCSD Esports and the gaming community of UC San Diego. It is free for all students and for those that hold a Recreation membership. TEC contains twenty-six MSI Aegis RS 11th Gen Gaming PCs, fully equipped with ROCCAT peripherals and connected to ZOWIE’s XL2546K monitors. There are two console lounge areas with PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo systems on 65” Sony Bravia displays. Nestled inside is the TEC Cafe, where you can find coffee, tea and pastries that can be enjoyed on one of the outdoor patios, upstairs in the Glider Lounge, or on the high-top tables within the space. Food and drink are not allowed on the computer tables, and we ask that you take your studying and schoolwork upstairs or outdoors.
The space has open hours Monday-Thursday, 8am-4pm and Friday 8am-3pm. If you are a student or Rec Member, you can access the PCs using your SSO. When TEC is busy, we ask that you limit your time on the PCs to two hours so that others may have a chance to game. At this time, masks are required to utilize TEC and a team member will sanitize the peripherals and chairs between uses.
TEC is a product of the popularity of gaming within UC San Diego and has been an ongoing collaboration with Recreation and the UCSD Esports team. Established in August of 2019 with the help of Triton Gaming and Sixth College Tech Comm., UCSD Esports is a student-led organization housed within the UC San Diego Recreation Department and exists to give students the opportunity to experience the commitment, challenge and enjoyment of the competitive esports experience. We currently support eight different esports teams of which include League of Legends, Overwatch, StarCraft II, Dota 2, Valorant, Splatoon 2, Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. These teams are initiated and run by students who reflect the diverse landscape of esports as a whole. UCSD Esports is committed to being as inclusive as possible and aims to give students access to the facilities, equipment, and support that are needed to perform at the highest level.
Interested in being a part of UCSD Esports? If you are looking to tryout for a team, contact the appropriate Team Manager from our rosters. If you are passionate about esports and want to get involved outside of competing, reach out to Josh Chou, the current UCSD Esports President, at j1chou@ucsd.edu.
We would like to give a special thanks to our sponsors who have made TEC possible and for contributing in creating an amazing event. Turtle Beach/ROCCAT gave away five $1,500 Esports scholarships, peripherals for raffling including mousepads, keyboards, headsets and shirts. They also equipped the space with all peripherals: keyboards, mice, headsets and mouse pads. MSI provided lucky plushies, a golden statue of Lucky gifted to the Chancellor, Lucky USB Drives, tumblers, Nintendo Switch carrying cases, workstation backpacks and all 26 PCs in TEC (MSI Aegis RS 11th Gen Gaming PC). ZOWIE generously gave out two $1,500 Esports scholarships and all ZOWIE XL2546K Monitors in the space.
