Pancakes might not be the first food you associate with video games, but on May 5, UFV’s E-Sports Valley club (ESV) may change your mind. That’s when E-Sports Valley is hosting LANCakes, an all-day LAN (local area network) party at UFV to celebrate the end of the winter semester.
The president of ESV, Quan Nguyen, described it as “a great excuse to come play games at a university,” and to “see some new faces and hopefully make some friends.” The group will be hosting tournaments for a variety of games throughout the day, including League of Legends, Overwatch, and Super Smash Bros. “However,” Nguyen added, “we are always open to people bringing in or recommending to us their own games to share!
The club also has a Facebook event page where attendees can vote for which games they would like to see at the event, with Mario Party and Mario Kart leading the poll.
LANCakes, which runs from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m in the north section of the SUB’s Great Hall (now called Evered Hall), is just the newest in a long line of events ESV has hosted over the years, including LAN parties, the Shinespiked Super Smash Bros. tournament series, and collaborations with the computing student association for their annual Child’s Play fundraiser. The pancakes, however, will be a new addition, and if you want to get some, you may want to drop by early in the event. “I’m trying to see if we could have them all day,” Nguyen explained. “However, at the moment it will only be during the morning until about 2 p.m. I’m hoping this will change though!”
Nguyen suggested that anyone interested in attending should bring their PCs to take part in the LAN, and invites attendees to bring their own consoles or controllers if they have another game that they want to play.
In the midst of the planning for LANCakes, E-Sports Valley also recently elected a new team of club executives, including Nguyen. Rounding out the team is Calia-Lynn Fitzpatrick as vice-president / treasurer, Cam Stephen as vice-president / secretary, and Tom Cohen as PR manager / league coordinator.
“We would all like to have more events in general and make things more lively,” said Nguyen. “My personal plans are to have ESV members more connected and involved. Sometimes I feel like some things are moving too fast for some members, and I would love to have everyone naturally involved and motivated to host events with a passion. We would also love to grow in general — the gaming scenes, executive positions if needed, interest in events, and more.”
Nguyen encouraged everyone who enjoys gaming to attend LANCakes, saying, “I personally see a charm with ESV’s community and scene. Regardless of your background, we are all friendly, weird, quirky, and can connect very well with each other! There’s always something that makes me smile at each event, and I believe everyone can feel that as well.”
Speaking to prospective members of E-Sports Valley, Nguyen said “There’s no other club quite like us. We are all fairly tightly knit. Your passion, skills, talents, and even your struggles will be something we will all work on together — towards the better. We also are just generally humorous and love jokes, memes, and the like. If you love joking around, you’ve definitely got eyes on the right club.”
LANCakes will run from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m in Evered Hall on May 5.
Jeff was The Cascade's Editor in Chief for the latter half of 2022, having previously served as Digital Media Manager, Culture & Events Editor, and Opinion Editor. One time he held all three of those positions for a month, and he's not sure how he survived that. He started at The Cascade in 2016.