By Students lined up for slices of complimentary pizza as the music of Tyler the Creator, set the scene for a night full of activities and announcements for the entire semester.
After a few opening introductions, Esports Club President and fourth-year marketing major Izzy Calvillo began the semester’s first general club meeting by announcing a new collegiate league for the game “Marvel Rivals.”
“Marvel Rivals” is a recently released third-person “hero” shooter featuring playable characters from the Marvel franchise. Tryouts for the new league start on Feb. 8 and 9, alongside “Splatoon 3” and “iRacing” game tryouts.
“I’m really hoping that the ‘Marvel Rivals’ branch kicks off due to being a popular game right now,” Calvillo said. “So it definitely has potential.”
The board also announced that the next bi-weekly fighting game tournament, Battle by the Beach, will feature “Street Fighter 6” on Feb. 12.
For students looking forward to the Esports Association’s largest gaming convention of the semester, this year’s GGBeach event will take place in March and is themed around the title “Street Wave 2025.”
GGBeach will feature an artist alley, Esports industry panelists and six different universities competing in six video game tournaments.
According to the association’s ASI Liaison and fourth-year studio art major Matthew Delmar, the event traditionally features the entire department facing off in their respective game tournaments.
“It’s basically like we take over the entire first floor of the [University Student Union],” Delmar said. “It’s a big showcase of all of our different teams playing.”
The final announcement was a collaboration with the CSULB Anime Club with their planned mini-convention, Beach Aniwaves.
Set for Feb. 22, Beach Aniwaves invites students to the USU Ballrooms to enjoy activities such as cosplay contests, karaoke and panels from guests, including V-tubers, who are online personalities with a computer-generated avatar.
The association’s collaboration takes shape in additional events, including a “Mario Kart” and “Super Smash Bros.” tournament.
For winter break updates, the Esports association announced they exceeded their winter charity stream goal of $500, with $550 fundraising for the charity organization Stand Up To Cancer.
Meeting their projected donation amount, students within the association followed through with their promised “donation rewards,” which included one student wearing a complete maid outfit, another getting their head shaved and three board members getting pied in the face.
Towards the night’s end, attendees participated in a custom game of “Family Feud” with raffles for prizes, including hoodies and PC cooler fans.
Returning from the last semester was first-year history major Jose Perez. He called the association a welcoming place and said the meeting assured this belief.
“All around, good vibes, good people, grateful people to be around, and [a] lot of good opportunities to connect with others,” Perez said.
Perez’s experience echoes Calvillo’s main goal for the club. Calvillo said he envisions the Esports club as an open space for all students.
“I don’t want it to be just turned off for other people,” Calvillo said. “I try really hard to make that not happen… I want to make this place where everyone can play.”
Future updates, tournament sign-ups and event reservations can be found on the Beach’s Esports Association’s Instagram page and Discord server.
