Digital Communities

The Armoury: Ryerson Esports Concept

Abstract
Ryerson University is embracing the esports culture and growth. As four students from the MDM program, we created a concept called the Armoury, a first of its kind centre for gamers, researchers, and industry partners to produce and develop innovation and opportunities into advancement of the industry. The collegiate gaming sector is a rapidly growing market, requiring partnerships will help further drive creative collaboration between students, faculty, and esports professionals.
About the Authors
Robin Kang

Robin is examining the professional identity of twenty-five esports coaches to better understand the gaps and barriers in esports infrastructure, resources, and career development. Check out her project here.

Stefan Grambart

Stefan is researching how esports and gaming video content is impacting broadcast media careers. Check out his work here.

Matthew Zyla

Matthew is researching the importance of stakeholder relations in collegiate esports integration. Take a look at his work here.

Emily Lê

Emily is examining the interactive theme park experience affected by a global pandemic and how to optimize the touchless immersive experience. Check out her work here.

About the Project

The Armoury was designed to encompass three separate areas: PC centre, streaming booths, and console lounge. Each area specializes in different aspects of training, live streaming, and community building through a dedicated gaming space, research lab and media production studio. The Armoury intends to provide opportunities for the University and student body to partner with industry experts to enrich hands-on learning, forwarding research and development of commercial applications for esports.

Process & History:

Matt Zyla, Robin Kang, Stefan Grambart, and Emily Lê first came together as a group to tackle a class assignment under the Digital Media Entrepreneurship course.  Our task was to create a new venture that serviced the needs of Ryerson students. After conducting multiple interviews and brainstorming concept ideas, we narrowed down that Ryerson students wanted an esports facility here on campus. Our first pitch deck highlighted the data of what the students were looking for and envisioned what a Ryerson gaming center would look like.

You can check out the presentation pitch here

From there we took our survey results and conducted additional market research into commercial esports facilities across the GTA. We identified which features and services matched what students were looking for and compared our notes to the feedback we got from the student survey answers that related to the specific sites we visited.

Additionally, we looked into PC cafes, college esports arenas, console lounges, and streaming booths from across the globe, drawing comparisons and taking note of similarities in operating procedures, facilities, and models.

You can check out the presentation deck that accompanied our initial presentation to the Ryerson Architecture students here.

We knew this unique logotype would need to be bold and flexible enough to scale up and translate for use on different media platforms while retaining strong bonds with the University. The triangular, self-contained nature of the ‘A’ letter form integrates both curved and geometric elements. The interior of the shape resembles a flag, often seen as a symbol of team spirit and pride in sporting competitions and originally as a military ensign on the battlefield. Gotham Condensed was chosen for the accompanying typeface for its bold and angular forms. The colour palette consists of Armoury orange and Armoury grey.

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Final Space and Goals

The goals of the Armoury are:

  • Testing, Data and Analysis :The facilities include direct Fibre-Optic Internet, private team rooms, post-game analytics and screen-casting for events and coaching—providing partners with robust user-testing data and participant feedback to better optimize their products. State-of-the-art equipment and software are offered to collegiate leagues and teams.
  • Live Streaming and Broadcast: The Armoury is a turnkey studio for industry live events and tournaments. Professional leagues and recreational teams will use cutting edge broadcasting equipment and infrastructure to stream content. These events will provide opportunities for sponsorship, brand awareness, community interaction and encourage collegiate esports expansion across North America.
  • Nurture Talent: Within this space, students will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience in modern digital broadcasting techniques, furthering their ability to meet the workforce needs of our partners. With the continued adoption of esports into academic institutions, there is a growing need for a post-secondary vanguard to lead the charge for this emerging field. Ryerson University and its partners have the opportunity to be leaders in this regard, promoting and nurturing competitive gaming on curricular, research, and commercial levels.

We are grateful for the guidance of Professor Vincent Hui, who with our research helped to inform the design of the proposed space and the direction of the renderings and VR image scenes created by a talented group of students from the Department of Architectural Science. We give special thanks to Alvin Huang, Justin Lieberman, Caleb Culmone, Olivia Ferreira, and Bill Feng.

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