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Facilities

The OU Esports & Gaming Facilities Overview

Since 2016, we've worked to build relationships with peers in the region and entities inside of OU for space utilization. During the Fall 2023 semester we quietly started using our development clinic space while we worked on the venue for the campus. All of the needs in our spaces will tie back to the intentional design of all our pillars and programs and then scale up over time.

Get ready! The start of the physical home for OU Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation is here!

The OU Esports & Gaming Complex

The OU Esports & Gaming Complex, comprised of the Esports & Gaming Venue and Developmental Clinic, serves the whole of the University of Oklahoma’s gaming community and beyond. These spaces are the result of the goals of student and staff gamers at OU since 2016. While we have quietly launched aspects of this space, in Spring of 2024 we bring the venue side online making the complex fully functional for the first time as we open the doors for daily operations. Make sure to click the "Full Details" buttons if you're interested in all the specifications and intentions of our complex spaces.    

WHO CAN USE OUR VENUE?

The OU Esports & Gaming Venue is accessible to everyone at different times of the week, please reference our "Hours of Operation". During M-F operations we are exclusively open to the OU campus students, faculty, staff, and campus partners. On Saturday and Sunday we are open to the public. This does include game days as well. We have compiled a frequently asked questions sections further down the page, but do not hesitate to shoot us an email if you have further questions.

Reservations

Interested in reserving our space, putting on a gaming event in your area, or using our production services for any type of event? Then take a moment and fill out our reservation inquiry form and we will get coordinated to bring your event to life. This includes RSO, campus departments, individuals, and public parties.

We recommend submitting your reservation request 7 days before your desired date. While we can facilitate short turnarounds it reduces your chances of availability and lowest cost sensitivity.

 

Learn More About Reserving Our Space

Location, Contact, & Hours of Operation

LOCATED on the East side of Cross Building B facing Jenkins Avenue. 114 4th Street, Suite 126B, Norman, OK 73019 - Google Maps Link
PHONE 405.325.4384
EMAIL esports@ou.edu

HOURS OF OPERATION

  • Sunday: 12PM-8PM (Open to Public)
  • Monday-Thursday: 11AM-10PM (Campus Only)
  • Friday: 11AM-1159PM (Campus Only)
  • Saturday: 12PM-1159PM (Open to Public)

    We always recommend joining our Discord for the most up-to-date news: Join our Discord.

PRICING

You can add as much credit as you'd like to your account. The following rates below are how your credit converts to usage.

ALL PRICES INCLUDE TAX

Student, Faculty, Staff, Campus Partner Only Rates

  • Semester Membership Packages: $150-$170
  • Annual Membership Packages: $250-$300

Please reference the Membership Packages table below for all perks and amnenities.
 

Non-Member & Public Rates
  • Hourly Rate (All parties): $5/hr
  • *All Day Access Pass:
    • Saturday: $30
    • Sunday: $20                

*All Day Access Pass is only good for the day it is purchased for. It does NOT roll over.

Membership Packages Perks Overview

On top of hourly usage rates for the public and general usage, we are launching membership packages for students, staff, faculty, and campus partners alike for Fall 2024 and on!

  OU GAMING CLUB ACCESS MEMBER (ALUMNI/STAFF)
OU GAMING CLUB VIP MEMBER
(STUDENT)
OU GAMING CLUB VIP MEMBER
GAMERHAUS & DEVELOPMENT STUDENT MEMBER
COST
(ALL PRICES INCLUDE TAX)
Free

Full Year:$300

Single Semester: $170

 (REFERENCE FAQ BELOW)

Full Year:$250

Single Semester: $150

 (REFERENCE FAQ BELOW)

Included upon acceptance to position or roster. Slots are limited.
WHO Student, Faculty, Staff, Alumni & Campus Partners
(Norman, HSC, Tulsa)
Faculty, Staff, & Campus Partners
(Norman Only)
Students
(Norman Only)
Student Only
(Norman, HSC, Tulsa dependent on role)
DISCORD ACCESS Yes + OU Channels Yes + OU Channels + VIP Perks Yes + OU Channels + VIP Perks
(GamerHaus Cohort gains additional channels)
PREREQUISITES & WHERE TO SIGNUP No prereqs, signup in OU Gaming Club Discord Must be OU Gaming Club Access Member. VIP membership paid for in venue ONLY
(Can do both in venue)
Must be OU Gaming Access Member. Apply for positions in general registration application
(Development positions only available at beginning of each semester)
PERSONAL LAB USAGE TIME
(Only consumed when using gaming stations, free if just hanging out or using your own device)
$4/hr
Day Passes available on Saturday & Sunday (Reference above)
UNLIMITED USAGE (1st Year Perk ONLY)

(Does not pertain to paid events, or private reservations that may close the facility for that duration)
GAMERHAUS UNLIMITED USAGE
(1st Year Perk ONLY)

LAB STAFF
 UNLIMITED
(1st Year Perk ONLY)

OTHER DEVELOPMENT STUDENTS
 10 hours a month then normal hourly rate for personal use.
PRIZE POOL EVENTS AND LEAGUES
(Intramurals, Tournaments, some Weeklies)
$0-$20 entry dependent on event
1-TIME DISCOUNT CODE TO MERCH STORE No Yes, $10% per semester
NINTENDO NETWORK FUNCTIONALITY
(The only place on campus your Nintendo Switch fully works online)
No Yes, 1 Personal Device
RIOT CAMPUS UNLOCKED
    
Yes
COMPUTER CONNECTION DISCOUNTS
(Alumni owned OKC based custom PC builder)
No 10% off all single components
5% off custom builds
GUESTROOM RECORDS DISCOUNTS (Alumni owned Norman/OKC based Vinyl & Music Procurer) No $15% off sales, ability to influence orders for limited run pressings periodically.
FitGMR
(For those interested in developing their competitive edge further)
No • 25% off discount on all FITGMR services, including FITGMR Pro App, FITGMR merchandise, all Training Grounds services.
• $9.99 - discord daily training subscription
• $75 - game-specific 2-day Bootcamps
• $200 - 2-month Performance League
ACCOUNT EXPIRATION Re-Register Every July Membership runs from July to December for semester mebers or June to June for annual members. Membership expires every June 30. Paid hours NEVER expire.
VALUE Priceless! ;) Over $9000/yr!!!!!!!!

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Only students, faculty, staff, alumni, and campus partners can register to be an "OU Gaming Club Access Member" while the "VIP Member" includes the same minus alumni. For "Access" members you can register by joining our Discord. For "VIP" members you have to stop in the venue during our hours of operation to get signed up and pay for your membership. Join our Discord!

We currently use Clover for our processing and this enables everything from all major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Venmo, cash, and even checks! (If you remember what those things are.)

We are working to enable the ability to prepay using a web portal for time, merch, memberships, and any other function we have for the venue before even arriving. 

For the remainder of the Spring 2024 semester only students, faculty, staff, campus partners, and student organizations can reserve the venue. We do have plans to open this up for outside OU reservations later in 2024. Please stay tuned in our Discord and socials as we add new abilities and features.

Please use the form link above in the "Reservations" to submit your reservation request.

It's ALMOST that simple! Come in during our open hours, and if you're already all set with an account/play time, all we need is for you to show your SoonerID at the front desk (on weekdays only) before claiming a gaming station. Think of this like checking into a gym.

Absolutely! Maybe you show up at right when we open, but have class at 1P-2P or want to go run an errand or grab food, DO IT! We'll see you when you get back later in the day and you can resume as if you never left. Just remember day passes expire once the day ends. 

100% of venue, membership, and reservation fees are exclusively earmarked to fuel student payroll and resources. Other funding sources, sponsorships, and donations are used for departmental staffing past student employees, travel, training, and maintenance. 

For general use, Saturdays and Sundays are open to the public. Certain events throughout the year will be open to the public.

Please check our hours of operations at the top of this page. Monday through Friday the venue is exclusively available to OU students, faculty, staff, & campus partners ONLY. On Saturday and Sunday we do open up the venue to the public too. Aside from that, there are no further prerequisites to come in. If you are an OU member please ensure you have your SoonerCard ID, eaccounts mobile app logged in, or be able to verify you are a member of the OU collective.

We automatically bake in 5 minutes from when you login to when the time usage starts ticking down. If you have issues, it's ok! Just explain what's happening to our lab staff and they'll work with you. We want you to feel at home in our spaces and that also means when things happen, we can work through them, but speak up if something comes up so we can know ASAP. 

Nintendo uses very common network ports which are very prone to security vulnerabilities. OU is an high level research campus on top of a public institution and to remain complaint as well as protect our infrastructure from top to bottom much of OU's network is locked down and protected against past and present cybersecurity threats. 

The Nintendo perk represents the only place on campus where OU Provided WIFI allows for full multiplayer and network capability for Nintendo Switches. VIP members only as OU Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation specifically funds and enables this 3rd party service on OU campus with the support, approval, and collaboration with OU IT. 

Good question! Only one person will need to be signed in and paying that hourly rate! If we detect any account sharing beyond this level, we will take action including an account suspension or ban.

Yes! We want everyone to be comfortable in the venue, and if that means playing on your own device, do it! However, depending on where you get setup, we'll need you to pay our hourly rate/have a membership. If you're just playing on your handheld device and chilling in the venue, perfect! We also have 3 workstations that are Switch Dock & HDMI capable, and those are available for FREE on first-come first-serve basis. If you get setup at any other station in the venue, you will need to sign in to SENET.

"In the spirit of helping foster League of Legends communities on high school and college campuses, Riot will be granting access to League Unlocked to approved computers as part of the Campus League Unlocked program. Schools can apply and, once approved, any player who plays on those machines will receive access to all League of Legends champions, a collection of skins, as well as an XP boost. These rewards are specific to the location, so players will need to play on a registered computer to receive them!"  - Riot Games 

Our venue is Campus League Unlocked! 

Absolutely NOT, your team functions like scrims, practices, formal meetings, and team functions are part of your development obligation to OU Esports & Co-Curricular Innovation. The above mentioned time is for "PERSONAL" usage meaning when you, the individual, wants to just come in and game whenever you want separate from your team functions and obligations. 

Of course! Everyone plays and gets comfortable with their own input devices. All we ask is you respect our peripherals when you move them out of the way and then you move them back when you’re done. You can also ask our staff to disconnect ours for you if you’d like. We want you to feel comfortable and welcome in our spaces as priority one!

We always want OUr gamers to feel welcome and included! If you own a game that isn’t installed and want to use our space and hardware to play, then simply install it when you come in. All popular game launchers are preinstalled, just login to your account and install. We do not actively wipe our storage unless we need to free up space for basic functions or if we need to host an event with specific games and need the space.

For right now you join our Discord and/or follow our socials. We will be introducing an events calendar on our website over the Summer.

For us, an arena is a space that celebrates competition and in that intent sacrifices some square footage to create a space that is often not used for it’s full intent many times in a single school year. With our growing list of partners on campus, if we need bigger spaces to put on an event like a tournament or competition with a stage we have more than enough places across campus to leverage for those one-off events that typically don’t exceed more than 10-20 times a year. This remains true even in our upcoming renovation intent and why we call this a venue that can deploy some additional seating for real small events, but with stadiums down the street, ballrooms up the street, and our previously designed Black Box Theater (BBT) in the adjacent Cross building, we have plenty of resources for showcase events in the future.

For right now head to our online merch store HERE. We’ll be adding several more items in middle to late 2024. Keep looking!

At this time we do not, and we do not allow food and open drink to be consumed at our desk stations. Around the corner and through the courtyard are numerous restaurants in Cross A & C. As a rule for drinks. We only allow containers that are sealable on the top, but we strongly recommend you place them on the floor next to your station or in your bag to avoid any problems. Things happen, but that will not excuse any damage to our inventory.

Esports & Gaming Complex Dedicated Spaces

Gaming stations in the OU Gaming & Esports Venue.
The Esports & Gaming Venue

The Esports & Gaming Venue is designed to be our community space with full day operations and open to the entire campus. During select events and timing of the year it will also be open to peer K-12/collegiate peers, friends and fans of the university, and specific audiences such as tailgates, weekly & monthly events, and other unique programming.

 

The OU Esports & Gaming Development Clinic.
The Esports Development Clinic

This is where the work happens: representing our program in competitions, managing live gameplay production, personal streaming, or crafting articles, press releases, and media for this very website. It’s the business end of our operations, where casual gaming gives way to the goal-oriented world of esports.

The outside corner of Cross B where the OU Gaming & Esports Complex is located on campus.
The GamerHaus Living Learning Community

GamerHaus is a living learning community for first-year students focused around using gaming as the entry point to OU. The community is located within the same building as the OU Esports & Gaming Complex.

Other Heavily Used Cross Village Spaces

Cross Village Residence Halls den spaces.
Cross Dens

Dens are used every week for team development across all of our programs. This includes collaboration meetings, VoD review for competitive teams, and coworking space for productivity. 

Students during bedlam in the Black Box Theater in Cross A.
The Black Box Theater

Originally a planned space by the now defunct ONE U tech store on campus and our Director back in 2016-2017, this space was designed for BYOC "Bring your own computer" events, console tournaments, and small sized esports events. During its first year in 2018, we hosted the inaugural Bedlam series as well as end of year event programming inside it. Below is an example of how we leverage this space for exhibitions and showcase matches like Bedlam. 

The OU Gaming Club logo with schematic overlay.
The OU Esports & Gaming Complex Renovation

 

In June 2023, The OU Board of Regents approved our project proposal to design a renovation place for the spaces below. As a quick action measure we worked through Summer 2023 and early 2024 to bring the spaces online as a preview of whats to come and retrofit two spaces for our immediate needs.