Level Up Gaming Club Helps Students Build Friendships, Develop Gaming Skills

KENNETH HOU
Staff Writer

The Level Up Gaming Club is the first club at AHS that allows students to connect with each other through all types gaming.

According to club president Andy Chiang, Level Up Gaming Club aims to help its members develop better communication skills and foster new friendships. The club provides members an environment in which they are able to openly share their passion for video games. In turn, this interaction allows members to familiarize themselves with one another and form new bonds.

“The hope is that [the club] can use games as a medium to facilitate new relationships between students, promote collaborative thinking and develop effective communication,” Chiang said.

Members of the club can expect to play and compete in a wide variety of games from multiplayer online battle arenas such as League of Legends to first person shooters like Call of Duty. The club emphasizes multiplayer games, so members also play board games. The games serve as a means to improve one’s thinking, reasoning and strategy.

On March 26, the club held its first League of Legends tournament for AHS students. The tournament consisted of 18 teams, each made up of five players. All five members of the winning team were to receive in-game currency, provided by the club, with which they could use to buy a variety of aesthetic upgrades for the game.

Given that the tournament was the first of its kind, participants such as senior Bocheng Song felt that there was much to be improved.

“[I felt that] the tournament was pretty unorganized,” Song said. “Whenever teams were missing a player, matches were delayed until a substitute could be found. For future tournaments, I would recommend that participants get to make their own teams.”

When asked to comment on the randomization of team, Chiang stated that it was the nature of the event itself to be randomized.

“The tournament was mostly for fun and [that was the reason] why teams were randomly created,” Chiang said.

“However, many felt that it was competitive since there was a [prize involved].”

Chiang hopes that, in the coming years, Level Up Gaming Club will be able to grow in size and become more well-known within the school, something they have not been able to accomplish due to the club’s recent formation.

“Unfortunately, the club wasn’t able to be a part of any of ASB events like Open House so we weren’t really able to advertise the club much,” Chiang said. “[In the future], we hope to set up events on a regular basis and further connect students through gaming.”