Camden County College officially opened the Cougar Esports Arena at the Williams G. Rohrer Center on January 27. The arena will be a place to play and learn.

The 1,600-square-foot state-of-the-art arena was constructed to host in-person intercollegiate esports league activities and academic programming. The arena includes a raised competition stage and 30 high-performance gaming PCs with streaming broadcast capabilities. The space has the flexibility to host tournaments and camps and be used as an academic classroom.

Camden County College’s new Cougar Esports program gives college and local community members the opportunity to play video games competitively while providing dedicated career pathways in esports-related fields. The popularity of professional esports is now surging, and today millions of followers are watching esports events on live, streaming platforms. Cougar Esports is excited to support these efforts and help prepare our students for the esports jobs of tomorrow, today.

The New Jersey college will offer an Esports Production Associate of Applied Science degree in the fall 2023 semester. Camden County College will be the first in the region to offer a two-year esports production degree.

This degree was designed with Horizon AVL Esports Integration, a Blackwood-based company that has worked with over 100 institutions nationwide for esports integration. Program goals include preparing students for careers in the esports industry, developing production skills in esports, understanding the business of the esports industry, and discussing social in esports. The degree will prepare students for career opportunities in esports event planning, networking, cybersecurity, video, and audio production.

A growing sport

In its first year, Cougar Esports supported nearly 100 students. There are currently 12 Cougar Esports teams: Valorant, Rocket League, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers, Madden Football, Apex, Hearthstone, Call of Duty: Warzone, NBA 2K23, Overwatch 2 & Rainbow Six: Siege, competing in two intercollegiate leagues (NACE and NJCAAe) supporting more than 50 student-athletes and broadcasters.

The Cougar Esports teams have competed against several two-year and 4-year colleges and universities, with many matches and events streamed live via Twitch.

Upcoming events at the Cougar Esports Arena include the annual Camden County Cougar Esports High School Invitational, and a variety of esports camps and boot camp opportunities this summer. The arena will host monthly open houses for the public to tour the space and to learn more esports.

This article originally appeared here.