By: Ryan Duey
Photo courtesy of 12th Street Community Center’s Facebook Page
Recently, a newly built state-of-the-art Esports Arena opened its doors in Junction City. Last week, the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 12th Street Community Center.
The new Esports Arena is run by the city and is free to the community. Aaron Sheltrown is the Esports Coordinator for the new Arena. Sheltrown said he became a part of this initiative after his wife saw talk about esports in the City Commission minutes.
“Josh, the Director of Parks and Recs here in Junction City, really wanted to get into gaming for the kids. He ended up going to the City Commission and was awarded funding for the Arena.”
“My wife actually pointed out the minutes to me and said esports is in the minutes. I’ll be graduating in July with my Game Business Esports Bachelor’s Degree and was looking for internships to get some experience under my belt before I go into the Field.”
“So, I started knocking on some doors, and I ended up at the 12th Street Community Center and was able to set up a meeting. Next thing I know, I have an internship with the city, and I was able to have pretty much free creative reign to help build the Esports Arena.”
Sheltrown’s vision helped build “Twister Arena.” A 24-player Arena that includes top-of-the-line computers, PlayStation Pros, Nintendo Switches, and more. Sheltrown said the computers you will see in Twister Arena are the same that would be found in a College Esports room.
Sheltrown highlights that while it’s free to the public, players under the age of 18 will need their parent or legal guardian to fill out a waiver form when they drop off their child.
Sheltrown plans to form teams that will compete in tournaments. He said they also plan to offer esports related classes, and will be putting on local tournaments soon.
“I would also like to run a production out of here. The production would give hands-on experience to people who may have a passion for esports, but might not really be the best competitor.”
“They can also support the team with learning about content creation, social media management, broadcasting, video production, and video editing. We plan to start offering some classes on those things.”
“We’ll also look at building teams as we start to get into building our local scene here.”
Twister Arena is open from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. To keep up to date with this new initiative, visit the 12th Street Community Center’s Facebook page.
