When a pandemic-born hobby becomes more than that Posted Wednesday, October 27, 2021 @ 9:53 AM During the height of Pandemic lockdowns, we all made the transition from in-person to virtual. For many, this hindered the opportunity to meet people and make new friends. However, for Resident Assistant Brydie Kelly, the internet became a new way for her to socialize through video games. “I got into gaming during a time when face to face interactions were not possible. Then when UCF started up zoom classes it became one of the best ways to meet and bond with new people I met virtually at UCF.” Brydie said. A fellow Marching Knight band member introduced her to Esports at UCF, and she became an official staff member in April of 2020. From there she began to branch out on her own and is now on the Esports at UCF Marketing staff as the Social Media Manager. The UCF Esports competitive team participates in various games including Valorant, Fortnite, Rocket League, League of Legends, CS:GO, DOTA 2, Overwatch, PUBG, and Rainbow 6 Siege. Esports in general have become an increasingly popular sport not only at UCF but also around the world. The winning prize money for some competitions can be upwards of millions of dollars, competing against thousands of other players. “Our teams then compete in different leagues such as NACE Starleague and FACEIT Collegiate. Competitions are also normally streamed via the Esports at UCF Twitch and we hold watch parties in the discord server to cheer on our knights!” Brydie added. Apart from her club duties, Brydie is also an RA in Tower 1 and often is able to interact with her residents on these gaming platforms. stating “When I tell my residents about the discord server most will join, and we love to have the discord be a place where people can hang out in an open call so new people can feel encouraged to join in if they want. Plenty of times I have had residents see me in these discord calls and join the call because they know at least one person”. When it comes to her video game set up in her residence hall, Brydie has an “HP Omen Pre-Built Gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 5600G-16 GB memory, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060- 1TB SSD”. For residents who want to have a nice gaming set up in their room, she recommends getting an ethernet and hooking it up to the school’s internet that way instead of connecting to the WIFI. Brydie finds this more reliable for both zoom classes and gaming alike. If you are new to the world of video games, Brydie hopes that you don’t feel discouraged, and regardless of what device you have – there are plenty of ways to get involved and make friends. When she first started gaming, she was only able to play Minecraft but then found a group of friends who liked to play BedWars; showing her the ropes. This was just a reminder for her that there are always friends to be made, who can help you learn the game. Brydie is one involved cookie– as in, computer cookies! Her love for the Esports team is apparent in the way that she talks about how exciting it is to be involved in a club where everyone dedicates their spare time towards making it better and growing their membership. As for her RA duties, the club has become yet another way for her to not only get to know her residents, but also encourage them to get involved with the school and make new friends. “Being involved in multiple things on campus at times can keep me super busy but, in the end, I find it very rewarding. Being involved in the club and personally knowing the safe space it aims to create for students who like to play video games makes me very excited to mention the club and teams to my residents. Every semester I always have residents who play video games and every semester they join the discord and meet new people to play video games with!” Says Brydie. Back