The Capital University Gaming Collective gives students a unique experience as a student-led organization. This is exactly what junior Lucas LeWinter intended when he and two friends started what would become this club two years ago as freshmen.
“We tried to start a gaming group … two years back,” says LeWinter “and what we wanted to do was basically have a bunch of computer games.”
Changes took place, and the 2015-16 school year marks the gaming collective’s first year as a legitimate school organization.
“What we’re trying to do is just have an environment where students can come play video games, board games, card games, and just hang out with other like-minded people,” LeWinter said.
LeWinter, who is majoring in film and communications (with a focus in electronic media), says that while most of their functions have been video game events, they are trying to plan future events such as board game nights and trading card game competitions featuring series such as Magic: The Gathering.
The leadership has not changed during gaming collective’s evolution from an underground gaming venue to an official school club. The gaming collective was started and is still operated by Lucas and his friends Andrew Ours and Phil Jones, both of whom are also juniors.
“We were kind of like the original three,” LeWinter said, “we kind of had the idea and we were all on the same floor of Cotterman (as freshmen) and we were like ‘You know what? We should start a gaming group.”
According to LeWinter, the most successful event in gaming collective’s past had been a general gaming night during the 2014 school year. This was a breakthrough in the club’s history. LeWinter ties the success to advertising.
“We had flyers for that one that were officially approved… over the past couple years just doing, like, guerilla-style marketing,” LeWinters said.
LeWinters added that a gaming collective event for Halloween is in the planning stages. In addition to this, LeWinter says that more tournament nights similar to the Super Smash Bros. competition, which was their most recent function, will happen over the course of the school year. One of these tournament nights will be hosted by the local branch of Microsoft, who will provide the consoles and proctor the event. LeWinter said if things go as planned, this event will bring more publicity both to the new Microsoft store at Easton Shopping Center as well as their club.
LeWinter and his partners are thinking positively about the future of gaming collective. With the club’s growing popularity and the release of the new Rock Band game, the organization has every right to be optimistic.
