During the week, the Idaho Commons at the University of Idaho is home to the food court and a shortcut to get to class, but Saturday, it will be the home of the largest gaming event on the Palouse.
The eighth installment of Vandal Overnight Games is expected to draw over 800 people to the Commons for a night of various games and activities.
While Vandal Overnight Games focuses on video games, the students and community members have ample opportunities to enjoy other events as well. ITS IPREPP Manager and one of the event coordinators Darren Kearney said there will be board games, VR and karaoke amongst other options for attendees.
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Students compete in the League of Legends tournament during Vandal Overnight Games last semester in the Idaho Commons.
“There is all sorts of stuff for people to do,” Kearney said. “We want people to come in, have a great time, meet new people, try out some new games they’ve never played before. Overall, we want them to have an enjoyable time on campus.”
Among the groups in attendance Saturday will be the Idaho Chess Club, a few members of the administration and members of the Idaho soccer team to play FIFA.
“It is an awesome activity, I think it is tremendous,” Idaho Women’s Soccer Head Coach Derek Pittman said. “I think our players will probably, as many of them as possible, will try to attend on Saturday. You know, an opportunity to interact with other students, an opportunity for them to have fun and just enjoy, whether it be playing FIFA or other online games and different things like that I think it’s going to be you know, be awesome.”
Vandal Overnight Games only grows as time goes on. Kearney said when the event first began nearly five years ago, only 100 people were expected to show up. Yet to his surprise, he said almost 300 showed up to play. Kearney said this proved to him there is a community that really values the events.
“We kind of realized, yeah people really want to get together and have a good time and do this sort of thing,” Kearney said.
In its fifth year, this year’s event holds a different level of significance, Vice President of the League of Legends Club David Vail said. A similar program at Washington State University recently came to a close due to declining attendance.
“It’s important to continue the funding for the event, and in light of WSU’s event going extinct this year,” Vail said. “We want our event to continue so it can provide the same community feel that we all have enjoyed for future Vandals.”
Where one door may have closed across the border, another remains open for gamers on the Palouse. Kearney said the Vandal Overnight Games are not just open to Idaho students, but Palouse community members as well.
“I feel that our event serves, it’s an underserved community,” Kearney said. “It’s hard to get people together in a social environment to try and play different games together. It’s sad that the WSU one has gone away, but the nice thing about our event is it is very much open to the public type event. We are trying to get people to come on campus and have that good time.”
Esports will make its debut at the Vandal Overnight Games Saturday, when the Vandal League of Legends team faces the Boise State team.
“It’s new this year,” said President of Vandal League of Legends Aaron Kane. “BSU recently started an eSports program in their college, and I plan to push for a similar program at UI. This is not only a great way to show the potential of such a program in our school, but also have some fun. Everyone loves to cheer on the Vandals against BSU.”
Vandal Overnight Games begins 1 p.m. Saturday in the Idaho Commons.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]