Keeping my gaming addiction alive and thriving.

As a Barnard student, I am embarrassed to admit to my fatal flaw: I love League of Legends.

And not in the “I love Arcane but I’ve never touched the game” sense… I genuinely love playing League. (And yes, I am ranked Iron after having put in 1,179 hours into the godforsaken game, but hey, I do it for the love of the game, not to be a sweaty tryhard.) I was addicted to it as a freshman in high school and my unfortunate addiction to it has never fully left me—and so when I found out that Columbia had an esports lounge, I was ecstatic. Is it embarrassing to be a League player? Yes. But have I also met some of my lifelong friends back in my hometown through gaming? Also yes.

Now imagine my frustration every time me and my fellow Barnard (Valorant-obsessed) friend would try and enter the Wallach Hall Gaming Lounge, only to get turned away at the door because of our non-Columbia IDs.

After an entire semester of repeatedly going back to Wallach Lounge to see if there were any updates, our Barnard IDs finally work. My heart rate jumped as soon as the door badge reader turned green for the first time — I was genuinely so happy. I was absolutely sick of trying to run League on a Macbook, and I could now finally try Marvel Rivals for the first time. No more FOMO from my computer not being able to run the game while my friends played Rivals all winter break. (Today I got to try out Jeff the Land Shark and hear “PURE CHAOS” in game for the first time.)

As a girl whose parents have never encouraged gaming, throughout my life I’ve always had to resort to a laptop to play games—whether that’s Minecraft, Roblox, League, or some other game. Thanks to the Wallach Lounge, I can finally play all the games I want, whenever I want. And I’m ecstatic that I’m able to do so now without feeling like a bum in my dorm trying to hop on the rift with my school laptop.

I love you Wallach Lounge. 

Header via Bwog Archives