Kwantlen Gaming Guild Brings Revolution to Richmond

KGG continues to promote student life despite upcoming cuts to club funding

On Sept. 22 the Kwantlen Gaming Guild hosted Richmond Revolution, an event which featured a plethora of card, video and board games played across numerous screens and table tops.

The Richmond campus conference centre took in over 100 visitors during the event, with students from every Kwantlen campus stopping by to take part in the fun. The sounds of rollicking Rock Band music played throughout the room while students helped themselves to free pop and pizza. The selection of games catered to casual and hardcore gamers alike, with the newest games featured alongside old-time favourites.

From console gamers to Magic: The Gathering die-hards, the event brought a large diversity of gaming cultures together to mingle in the arcade-like atmosphere. President of the KGG, Tashi Barungtsang, says, “It’s not just strictly gaming—we use gaming as sort of a vessel to bring students together in a common ground. Our club is mostly about social interactions, coming to campus and not simply just going home, but to stay on campus and have something to do on campus.”

The KGG’s goal to promote student culture is no simple task, however. Tanvir Bal, the Guild’s vice-president as well as an arts representative for the Kwantlen Student Association, says that his club’s budget has been cut significantly compared to their prior events due to a forthcoming reduction in KSA club funding. In preparation for this, the KGG has taken steps to develop a more sustainable model of operation, using as little KSA funds as possible to hold their events and developing various alternate means ways by which to obtain funds. These means include fundraisers and booster drafts for Magic: the Gathering.

Bal, after talking about budget cuts with KSA vice-president of finance and operations Waheed Taiwo, says that the issue is essentially coming from the lack of enrollment at KPU. Regarding the decision to live within reasonable means, Bal says, “I think one of the biggest detriments to Kwantlen in the past has been that people consider it a college where you go to class then go home. We’re trying to change the culture so that people stay here and so people actually want to go to Kwantlen.”

As part of their effort to help support enrollment at KPU, the KGG is working to promote their eSports teams. Bal cites UBC as having the best League of Legends collegiate team in the world, winning a major tournament held in South Korea earlier this month and even holding sponsorships with NOS Energy drinks. The KGG, however, aims to follow and perhaps even bypass their UBC rivals. “We’re trying to get Hearthstone teams, Counter-Strike teams, League of Legends teams, some real good professional teams that can actually compete against the bigger universities. We think that might end up helping with enrollment possibly, showing potential enrollers that there’s actual student culture and life on campus,” says Bal.

Barungtsang outlines that the KGG’s most important goal is to improve and promote student life, followed by promoting the gaming culture within campus and the KGG. Bal explains the importance of going into the Richmond campus for their event, “by moving out into Richmond, we’re promoting the KGG brand. We have been sponsored by Red Bull very recently for one of our events that’s coming in October. We think that these events will create opportunities for us to get further sponsorships so we can provide for our membership.”