NIU Esports Celebrates DeKalb Pride

It may have rained on June 20, but DeKalb Pride shone brightly! NIU Esports was thrilled to take part in the third annual DeKalb Pride festival in downtown DeKalb and the historic Egyptian Theatre.

*NIU Esports alum and student worker at the NIU Esports Booth at DeKalb Pride Fest.*

The NIU Esports representatives felt pretty lucky to have a booth inside the theatre where we were safe from the rain and heat – and where we got the rare chance to have folks play two of our favorite games on the theatre’s big screen.

Community members play video games at the Egyptian Theatre. — *DeKalb community members play video games at the Egyptian Theatre.*

But the highlight of the day was getting to connect with so many community members who share our goal of celebrating and connecting with the LGBTQ+ community in DeKalb County.

Throughout the day, we had around 30 players join in our casual Mario Cart 8 Deluxe and Street Fighter 6 pick-up games. We had many people stop by our booth to learn more and sign up for our mailing list. And we met several community partners who came by and spoke to us about potential ways to continue to connect NIU Esports with the DeKalb community. We’re eager to develop those connections and continue to be present in the community!

We’re grateful to Turtle Beach for providing top-quality gaming peripherals to the high score winner of our Street Fighter tournament and to the winner of our community drawing.

Winners of the Turtle Beach prize packs stand at the NIU Esports booth at Pride Fest. — *Winners of the Turtle Beach prize packs show off some of the Turtle Beach merchandise they won.*

It made our day when a pair of recent high school graduates came by the booth. Their teacher is an NIU alum who was part of the Esports program and spoke highly of it. They both said she was a very positive role model in their high school experience and that she influenced them to want to attend NIU.

Eli Curry, Community Ambassador of NIU Esports (shown in photo above), said, “I am happy that we were able to engage as many people as we did throughout the night, and that we delivered on the programming we planned.” One of NIU Esports’ driving pillars is to build community, and we were delighted to participate in Pride Fest for a second year. We hope community members will join us again, this time at the NIU Esports Arena on campus in October to celebrate Homecoming, when we will host a Community Retro Gaming night.