Lawrence Central boasts a wide variety of sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities, one of which is the E-Sports team led by coach Abby Lebo. Any good team of gamers needs a setup to match, and with a decent setup already costing around $800-1200, the school went above and beyond.
A year and around 72,000 dollars in the making, the Lawrence Central Arena is a huge step up from where the team has been practicing before. “We have been practicing in my classroom and also from home,” said Coach Lebo. “The issue with practicing in my classroom is that I only have one screen for kids to practice on, so we have to divide the time and the games. Now with the new arena, we will be able to compete in the same room and communicate with each other effectively with less distractions.”
The price of the setup is worth it, though, with a single student able to get up to $8,000 in scholarships or, in some cases, a full ride through Stay Plugged In, a platform that connects high school students with E-Sports scholarship opportunities. For Lawrence Township, a competitive and well-equipped district, the new arena is a must.
Tyler Powers, the district technician behind the acquisition of the devices, said, “The Indiana E-Sports Network made it a requirement that you need to be in-house [not at home] playing to mitigate any kind of cheating or anything. Dr. Smith got wind of this and how kids were getting scholarships and said we’ve got to get something going.”
Funded by the Lawrence Township district, Fall Creek Valley, Belzer, and Lawrence North also have an arena now. Equipped with gaming chairs, computers, mice, keyboards, and a TV for console games, the arena is a dream come true for gamers. There’s even a shoutcaster station, a space designed for commentary and broadcasting, in case the students want to livestream a game they are playing. “My favorite part is probably the entire PC setup,” shares sophomore Jaedan Matthews. Josh Hughes, a freshman on the E-SPorts team, boldly states, “I don’t think we’re going to lose now.”
The arena gives the team a professional place to practice and compete in, something they are really excited about. “E-Sports gets a lot of laughs from people not taking it seriously…we have already had a student get a scholarship at Ball State, and I think that this arena will bring the respect as a sport that we haven’t necessarily been given,” says Lebo. While the team still hopes for a larger turnout in the future, members agree that things are moving in the right direction.
Whether it be Rocket League, Marvel Rivals, or Valorant, the computers armed with RTX 5060 graphic cards powered by NVIDIA and 32 gigs of RAM can handle whatever the team throws at them. With the new arena enhancing the team’s skill and performance, Lawrence Central will be able to practice thoroughly and be as competitive as their opponents, and continue to be a place where students can thrive.
