EVENT:  UCI Esports will celebrate its five-year anniversary with a fall kickoff open house. In September of 2016, UCI established the first college esports program at a public university. The event will chronicle the program’s first five years and set the course for the next five. There will be free play in the arena and giveaways.

WHEN/WHERE:   4-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, at UCI’s Esports Arena, located on level two of the Student Center (bldg. 113, grid D5 on this campus map: https://parking.uci.edu/maps/documents/2021-UCI-MainCampusMap.pdf)

Brief program: 4-4:30 p.m.
Student Center Terrace
Welcome Week festival: 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Student Center Terrace and UCI Esports Arena

INFORMATION:  This event is by invitation only. Parking is available in the Student Center Parking Structure, located near the intersection of Pereira Drive and West Peltason Drive on campus. Media planning to attend should contact Sheri Ledbetter at 949-230-8962 or ledbetts@uci.edu for both parking and event credentials. Face coverings are required. 

BACKGROUND:  UCI is home to an esports arena with 50 custom PCs and computer monitors, headphones and gaming chairs, as well as a studio that broadcasts matches to hundreds of thousands of viewers. Opened in September 2016, it functions as a high-end recreational facility that’s also open to the public. In addition to its competitive teams, the esports program has coaching and administrative staff, a team psychologist and an exercise physiologist.

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