ESSEC Alumni supports the Gaming Lab of the ESSEC Games Society, winner of its Asso Rezo call for projects. Corentin Barnier (E25) and Jérémy Cohen Scali (E25) take us behind the scenes of this future in-place for student life on the Cergy campus, and call on the community to contribute to their crowdfunding campaign (in French).

ESSEC Alumni: What does the Games Society do? 

Corentin Barnier: The Games Society promotes all types of games (video games, card games, board games, role play and e-sport, etc.) by organising dedicated events open to all the School’s students.

EA: ESSEC Alumni is supporting your Gaming Lab project. What is that? 

Jérémy Cohen Scali: This is a unique initiative in French management schools. We’re preparing the opening of a venue on the Cergy campus where students will have free access to the video gaming world with high-quality equipment on various supports (PC or game consoles).

EA: Who is the Gaming Lab for? 

C. Barnier: We want the Gaming Lab to become a must on a par with Foy's and the K-Lab! The venue will thus be open to anyone: students, teachers and graduates, alone or in a group. We will also offer initiation for beginners, sessions between friends, or training for e-sport players. We are even hoping to organise workshops and conferences with sector professionals for people wishing to work in these fields.  

EA: How developed is e-sport in France? 

J. Cohen Scali: E-sport has really taken off in the last 5 years. The world championships are followed by millions of viewers, and university e-sport is hugely successful. There are two major student competitions in France. There’s the French Cup for business schools, organised by the members of the Grande Ecole Confederation, and it is actually our Games Society which will organise the 2023 session. You also have the Grosse Ligue [Major League], organised by Amazon, which is open to all higher education programmes.

EA: Where is ESSEC at in terms of university e-sport?

C. Barnier: ESSEC takes part in tournaments for several games, such as Fifa, Valorant or Smash Ultimate, with a certain degree of success: ESSEC DRIP, our League of Legends team has won the French Cup for business schools and the Major League several times. The Gaming Lab should allow us to enhance our players’ performance by providing them with high-quality equipment to train on, in addition to organising our own in-person tournaments.

EA: Digital technology and high-tech regularly come under fire for their environmental cost. Are you taking this issue into account in the Gaming Lab project?    

J. Cohen Scali: We intend to control the energy use of our equipment. We therefore chose the latest generation of components which are more energy-efficient.

EA: You are also attentive to the security of the Gaming Lab. 

C. Barnier: Any venue offering online activities must manage their security. We’re planning several measures. Firstly, player identification for each session, which will allow us to know who comes to the venue and when. There will be strictly limited access to certain applications and games, which will be defined upstream. Lastly, we’ll have a system to attach equipment and protect wiring.

EA: How can the ESSEC community support the Gaming Lab project?

J. Cohen Scali: You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram, put us in touch with your company for a partnership or contribute to our crowdfunding campaign.

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser (E10), Content Manager at ESSEC Alumni.

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