The University of Idaho’s E-Sports Lab flooding should not be treated as just another campus inconvenience. It should be a wake-up call for the university to take the E-Sports program and its facilities more seriously.
On Sunday, Sept, 23, 2026, students and staff discovered approximately an inch of water covering the floor of the lab. Dilynne Wilson, a senior at UI who works on social media for the E-Sports program, said students were initially skeptical when they heard the news.
“Honestly, most of us thought it was AI and Wayne was testing us,” Wilson said.
Unfortunately, it was not a joke. Students quickly went into the lab and began moving equipment out of the water. Wilson said they got “everything unplugged and out of the water” and salvaged what they could.
What is most concerning is that this apparently was not the first time the lab had flooded. That raises an obvious question: Why is expensive technology being kept in a location where flooding has already been a problem?
“You’d think they’d move expensive technology out of a flood prone area,” Wilson said.
The university should not have to wait for another incident to address a problem that has already happened. Computers, monitors, headphones and other equipment are not cheap, and replacing damaged technology can quickly become expensive. More importantly, the lab is a space that students and staff depend on to practice, compete and create content.
The timing made the situation even worse. The flood happened just one day before the start of the E-Sports season. While most students would probably panic at the thought of having to completely reorganize a lab overnight, the E-Sports staff and players got to work.
“Monitors, PCs, mouse, and headphones were all hauled, checked, and set up” for the matches, Wilson said. She described the amount of wiring and setup required as a “massive challenge.”
That effort deserves recognition, but it should not be necessary in the first place. Students and staff should not have to spend the night recovering expensive equipment from a flooded room just to make sure a season can begin on time.
The E-Sports program is clearly growing. Wilson said its content team is approaching 10 million views this semester, even before the season began. That kind of reach demonstrates that E-Sports is more than students playing video games. It is a competitive program, a community and a form of media that represents the university.
The program also connects students with people outside UI, including other colleges and high schools. That makes the program an opportunity for the university to build connections and promote itself beyond campus.
The university should recognize that growth before another problem forces it to. “The lab flooding was certainly not ideal,” Wilson said. More importantly, it should not become something the program simply learns to work around.
UI should be proactive instead of waiting for another flood to force its hand. The E-Sports program has already shown it can overcome adversity. Now it is time for the university to make sure it does not have to.
AJ Pearman can be reached at [email protected]