The Clemson University Board of Trustees Finance and Facilities Committee has partnered with Meta to approve a $17.5 million plan to build a state-of-the-art virtual training facility for the University’s esports team.
This announcement comes days after Clemson’s firstFortnite National Championship.
“We are thrilled about this commitment to invest in our wildly successful video game team,” said a Clemson Athletics representative. “Clemson athletics and IPTAY are excited provide some of the nation’s finest facilities for our esports athletes.”
The athletes will enjoy a two-story gym, high quality food options and a miniature golf course. It will be accessible to every Clemson gamer at the same time, on the same server, in the Metaverse.
Construction will begin in summer 2022, with Clemson’s finest software engineers on hand. The facility will be located on campus, within the complimentary virtual reality goggles gifted to every esports athlete.
“I’m just glad coach is finally going to let us go outside,” said the esports team captain. “We’ve been locked in the computer lab for months.”
In addition to the gym, which is full of finger-strengthening online exercises, Clemson hired a few experienced NFT designers to handle the food service.
“No, you can’t eat the food that you order at the campus restaurant,”said a Clemson Athletics representative. “And I don’t know why people keep asking me that. You can’t eat the food, but you get a non-replicable certificate that says you own a picture of the food. That’s pretty cool, right?”
This project adds to the list of recent facility investments in sports at Clemson, which include the McWhorter Softball Stadium, the Duckworth Family Tennis Center and a new women’s gymnastics and lacrosse facility.