The Walter and Shirley Fan Wang ESPORTS Room Welcomed 1,300 Students in its First Year

June 14, 2023

Thanks to a generous donation made by University Trustee Shirley Wang BUS’93 and Walter Wang, the first floor lounge in Wallach Hall was transformed last summer into a state-of-the-art e-gaming room for undergraduate students. The ESPORTS Room was a hit with students, welcoming over 1,300 total users between September 6, 2022 and May 13, 2023. 

The impressive space includes two 75-inch 4K resolution screens with game system plug in capabilities, a 4-panel 4K resolution video wall for streaming and events, and ambient LED lighting for an immersive playing experience. In addition to a wide variety of available games, the ESPORTS Room boasts 18 Lenovo Legion T7 gaming PCs with Intel Core i9 processor, Nintendo Switch systems, Playstation 5 systems, and Xbox Series X. 

During the 2022-2023 academic year, the most-played games were: 

  1. Valorant, with 7,983 plays 

  1. League of Legends, with 5,176 plays 

  1. Overwatch 2, with 3,534 plays 

  1. Fortnite, with 3,464 plays 

The number of reservations remained consistent throughout the year, except during winter break when many students were away from campus. Throughout the course of a typical week, the most active times were evenings and weekends. The chart below shows the number of active and new members each month throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. 

Users Chart showing the number of active and new members at the ESPORTS room by month throughout the first year of operation

The space is coordinated by Event Management and is reservable for Intramural and ESPORTS groups, while at other times open to the undergraduate residential community. The renovation was part of an initiative to support community at Columbia through the renovation of shared social spaces for undergraduates on the Morningside campus.  

To learn more about the ESPORTS Room, visit this page.