Young Atlantans will have a chance to learn esports, sneaker design and more in a new state-of-the-art computer lab that opened Wednesday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation and Aquatic Center.
The lab is part of city officials’ push to engage students across Atlanta through esports programming as competitive video gaming has exploded in popularity. The city invested about $95,000 in the lab, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation.
“Esports is nowadays just like having a basketball hoop at a community center. It’s mandatory in order to get the young people to see your center as being relevant,” Justin Cutler, commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Parks and Recreation, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It is also a way for young people to get scholarships to schools like Georgia Tech and a potential career path after graduating.
On Wednesday, Mayor Andre Dickens told kids gathered ahead of the lab’s ribbon-cutting ceremony that this was a chance for them to turn their passion for video games into something bigger.
“Don’t just play the games, create the games,” Dickens said. “Don’t just consume the technology, be the one who shapes the technology.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Once the lab opened, kids rushed in and sat at the gaming computers already loaded with Fortnite. One student said they’d love to play, but didn’t know how to play on a PC. Someone else told him this was a great opportunity to learn.
The computer lab was created through a partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, the Parks and Recreation Department and two nonprofits, the Cxmmunity Foundation and Sole Circle Foundation. The latter provided a $60,000 grant for the hardware in the space, according to T.J. Bennett, co-owner of the foundation’s parent organization, fashion and gaming store Sole Play. The foundation will hold a program sometime this year to teach sneaker designing on the computers and with real Nikes.
The lab has 20 gaming PCs, which are decked out with gaming chairs, keyboards, headsets and mice. There are also two Mac desktops that will be used for training on design and artificial intelligence, according to Julian Fitzgerald, co-founder and executive director of Cxmmunity Foundation.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Part of the goal of the lab is to bridge the digital divide between those who have access to expensive gaming PCs and high-speed internet and those who do not, Fitzgerald said.
Many of the esports tournaments with the biggest prize pools are for computer games, according to data firm Statista, not the more common consoles like Xbox or PlayStation. Video game streaming on platforms like Twitch, another way people make money off esports, requires computers and fast internet. The global esports market is worth $2.4 billion, according to Statista.
This is the second esports lab created by the city. The first opened last year at the Thomasville Recreation Center in southeast Atlanta. Kids at the MLK lab and those at Thomasville will now be able to livestream and compete against each other in their respective labs, Fitzgerald said.
The Cxmmunity Foundation will teach kids esports fundamentals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays with the help of members of Morehouse College’s Maroon Tiger gaming club.
“The students will be engaged in esports competition while simultaneously learning the core tenets of what esports is made up of: event management, project management, community management, but alongside that, graphic design, marketing and promotion, production … and IT,” Fitzgerald explained.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
But the lab won’t just be for students. Senior citizens who frequent the recreation center will also be able to use the lab, according to Cutler from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
“Seniors also demand access to high-speed internet,” Cutler said. “They also game, too, and it’s important that they’re connected to technology and have that available to them in a really professional way.”
The city plans to open two more computer labs in the next year. Fitzgerald said the next location will be in the William Walker Recreation Center along Fairburn Road in southwest Atlanta.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
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