St. Louis Community College equipped their new esports lounge in SteelSeries gear, and the students love it. Check out how these future pros benefited from our keyboards, mice, and headsets.
There's no tossups, no running, no lifting, but there's just as much emotion, thrills, and prestige. St. Louis Community College kicked off their esports program in 2024, and it's off to a great start. Having already competed in Overwatch, the fledgling program located in Missouri scored a 6-2 across all titles.
They compete in four games: Valorant, Overwatch 2, Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, and Street Fighter 6. Engaging in the National Junior College Athletics Association Esports (NJCAAE), they battle for up 16 titles which are offered to two-year institutions.
"We’ve recently launched a new esports lounge, which has been fully outfitted with SteelSeries peripherals — products that I have personally relied on throughout my career," said Robert Cruz, Esports Coordinator at St. Louis Community College."
Our gear has had a great impact on the experience of the STLCC esports-athletes (and future pros no doubt), Cruz told SteelSeries. It's a real highlight of what impact SteelSeries has not just on world-stage esports players, but also the future ones.
"Drawing off of my own peripherals at home (Arctis Nova 7 Wireless, Rival 3 Wireless) it was in my belief that SteelSeries peripherals would fit the bill for both new players and seasoned players, feeling it was important and appropriate for a universal fit where players can excel regardless of individual variances," Cruz said. "With this is mind, I went full throttle with SteelSeries."
The program does more than just grant an opportunity to compete in esports; Cruz honed it on an experiential learning angle, helping students build valuable workforce skills, such as public speaking, decision-making, event management, and teamwork. His hope is that the students will takeaway adaptable skills that expand into their future occupations, esports-related or not. Additionally, competing on a national stage is a portfolio opportunity to take into a four-year university and beyond.
Gearing up with SteelSeries
STLCC's new lounge is outfitted with 18 computers, featuring specs that would make anyone jealous: Intel i9-14900K processors and RTX 4070 graphics cards. Two of those stations are for coaches.
Each station has:
In addition to PCs, there are also two Nintendo Switch consoles to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
"I love using SteelSeries peripherals since to me, it seems like it's a brand that is built around the gamer," said Ringolds "Mood" Bagwasi, who plays Valorant. "The Nova 7 headphones are great, I love the range and the quality of audio, and the mic is pretty good for one that can retract into the headphones themselves. Keyboard customization makes it feel more personal and is something cool to show off, I keep my gamer tag on mine."
Another player, Xander "Vump" Hibbitts, praises the ecosystem between SteelSeries hardware and software, as he happily uses his own products at home.
"I can rely on a comfortable and premium build quality with all of their products and as a user of the Apex 7 TKL, their keyboards are my favorite out of the other competitors in the market," Hibbitts told SteelSeries. "I love their software as it has been a one-stop-shop between equalizing audio, clipping, and managing peripherals."
We love to see students competing in esports and learning valuable skills for the future. Huge thanks Robert Cruz and best of luck to all the students at STLCC in their upcoming competitions and endeavors. For Glory!
Note that current students are always available for SteelSeries student discount! Shop for SteelSeries gear now.