Gaming at Oxford video transcript.

Sameer:
I was the president of the Esports Society at Oxford and I've recently seen Warwick has an Esports team and a lot of universities around the UK are now building Esports facilities for their own students. So my initial project view was that we would build an Esports suite for international students to come in play in so you can take part in National E-Sports League. And as we started working on this project we realized we can do a lot more and actually create not just Esports suite but an entire Esports culture at the University about not just Esports but gaming and healthy Esports and gaming in particular.

Paul:
So this is a basement in our third quad. It used to be a disused IT room but then through the agreement of college to let us get this set in and a lot of very kind sponsors we managed to completely revamp this room into the state-of-the-art Esports Arena. 

Hamza:
It's completely open to everyone and you don't have to even have played any games before and it could be your first time playing - it just does not matter. They hold lots of free events multiple times a week that you can come and see it and you can play some games here as well. And if you want like free access whenever, that's when you can join the society.

Cath:
The people are just a joy. I think you get such a diverse a diverse range of people. Like Oxford's such an old university, you don't necessarily be like 'Oh I'm going to going to find all these incredible gamers and be able to do academic gaming' and stuff like that which I wasn't expecting at all. I'm a second year; this didn't exist when I was here.

Sameer:
My best friends in my first year which are now my best friends now still are people I met in the Oxford Esports community. 

Hamza:
It is really just a good opportunity to meet other people who go to the same university and play the same game as you.

Sameer:
It has this inclusivity beyond barriers where you don't need to be physically present but also so engages a completely different demograph.  People who are playing sports may not be playing  Esports and vice versa.

Paul:
Oxford already has reputation for great student sports, traditional sports. We get a lot of top level rowers and rugby players in, but for some reason we didn't have a particularly good Esports representation. So part of the benefit to the Esports players here is they have proper machines in a centralized venue to practice and we're already seeing a big boost to our success at nationwide level competitions thanks to this as a training space.

Cath:
I know the Esports Society come here a couple times a week to train, I know it's been massively helpful in their Varsity training. They play Rocket League, Valorant, League of Legends - it's just a fantastic space. It's the first one in Oxbridge. I think it's really good 

Hamza:
There's also lots of efforts to try and improve participation with stuff like Women and Non-Binary Tournaments that are taking place with NSE: OverWatch and League of Legends. So there's a really open environment for everyone to come and play games.

Sameer:
There are loads of benefits. It's not just about you playing a video game it's about everything around that video game that we're really interested in. 

Paul:
I've found a very welcoming community within it so it really is if you're a student at Oxford this is a place for you.