One of ACU’s biggest special interest clubs is being reborn with improved funding and more focus on bringing a community together.
League of Wildcats was started three years ago by Daniel Archer, graduate student in English, and a group of his friends who wanted to create a community of people who liked playing League of Legends. The group is now at 107 active members.
Last year, the group received little funding from Students’ Association due to lack of representation in SA.
Sion Alford, junior political science major from Fort Worth, saw this and immediately contacted the group in hopes of helping.
“”I’m interested in the game that they play and I was interested in restarting the organization and helping them get some support in congress,” Alford said. “I was able to work with the officers that are a part of it now and was able to secure them nearly $1,000, which is the most they’ve ever gotten.”
Daniel Wolf, senior digital entertainment technology from Houston, has been involved with the group and is now working to coordinate different competitive events for the organization.
“The initial idea of the club was getting people into League of Legends together, but that was kind of narrow,” Wolf said. “The current mission is just to create a community of people who like to play video games. There’s a large audience that is secluded or play by themselves, and we want to reach out to them and have them participate in events with people of similar interests so they can develop lifelong friendships.”
The League of Wildcats is looking to expand to other games and draw in more members through different events like tournaments within the organization and show world tournaments of certain games.
“This year we want to try and focus on certain events that we will do on certain games,” Wolf said. “Some people may not be interested in those games, so we don’t really expect them to come, but that’s why we’re going to try and vary it a little bit.”
Alford and Wolf said they want anyone who is interested to get involved.
“It is completely open to anyone, no matter what game you play,” Alford said. “We want to grow the community, and that only happens when people show up to events. We want to know what games people play so we can better serve them with the amount of money we’ve been entrusted with. I’m really thankful for SA and their support. I had a lot of support from the executive cabinet because they really did want this group to thrive on campus.”
Wolf is currently working with informational technology and computer science majors to get a website developed for the organization in hopes of developing a community and having ease of access to the different event announcements for members.
“I’m hoping for the future,” Wolf said. “Video games have a negative stereotype to them. They are seen as lazy aspects of life, and it’s a recreational activity for a lot people. Not everyone can do sports. This is a great thing that people can get into and enjoy.”
