Want your kid to get a sports scholarship but don’t feel like investing in soccer balls, shin guards, or shoulder pads? Great, because NewRo entrepreneurs Govinda Raghubar and Ryan O’Hara have an alternative for you: It’s called Encore Esports.
In the new industry of eSports, high-school students nationwide were granted as much as $4.2 million in scholarships last year for their video-gaming talent — which was all the incentive Raghubar and O’Hara needed to launch their facility at 538 Main Street in April.
The professional-grade, high-tech lounge provides the local gaming community 3,600 square feet of prized real estate and a cool atmosphere to hone their skills. Players can lounge at 15 different couch stations with individual consoles, all softly illuminated by blue LED lights and accented by the black-light murals and colorful artwork embellishing the walls. Each console includes an Xbox, a PS4, a Nintendo Switch, and a 15-inch flat-screen TV. In addition to this setup, there are 20 high-powered computers (1070 graphic cards with i777 processors) for PC games, offering ample opportunity for enthusiasts to try their hand at new games, as well as at classics like Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros.
Encore Esports allows players at all skill levels to practice and compete against each other, starting at $5 per hour, every day except Monday. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even win a little prize money.
