Esports is experiencing a boom in higher education and Durham University is at the forefront – with the support of Stone, A Converge Company

At Durham, esports forms part of the Wider Student Experience, which intends to deliver an “unrivalled experience” for every student beyond their studies.

To enhance that experience for esports, Durham turned to Stone.

It made sense: Stone has managed Durham’s entire IT estate for the last eight years, and an on-site engineer is embedded with Durham’s IT team.

Despite that, nothing like this had ever been attempted on campus before and was a new experience for all. Esports Technical Specialist Kylie Kendrick has had previous experience with esports setups in the past, but never on this scale. She needed support.

Kendrick has worked at Durham for over a decade in various IT teams. But as someone with a passion for gaming, in 2021 she decided to drive esports forward.

“I used to play esports at university twenty years ago,” explained Kendrick, “but I've had limited support elsewhere when trying to start esports programmes. I wanted to try and see what I can do at Durham.”

The landscape has changed over the past two decades. Universities across the UK now offer esports degrees, and the industry is growing at 8.5% per year. 94% of students say esports improves their social skills, and 64% of educators say esports boosts student engagement.

“I had a good leadership team who saw the benefits,” said Kendrick, “and they helped me secure financing.”

Once Kendrick had internal support, she looked outward – and Stone was the obvious choice.

“We know Stone well, and we’re in daily contact. The ordering system is easy, and my account manager is wonderful.”

While esports deployments have different requirements than conventional PC or laptop builds, that didn’t cause any issues.

“Stone offer everything as a package – we can get desktops, monitors and peripherals, laptops too, and furniture.”

Now, three years later, Kendrick’s idea has snowballed. “We’re recognised as an actual sport, which is rare among UK universities, and we’ve got teams in the National Students Esports League and National University Esports League.”

Twenty Durham teams now compete in twelve games, including Valorant, League of Legends, CS:GO, Overwatch and Rocket League.

Kendrick needed PCs, laptops, peripherals and a fully furnished esports hub, and her specific requirements didn’t phase Stone. “I wanted to swap hard disks for SSDs, and some components changed – but it was never a problem.”

Durham’s students now use exceptional esports IT that helps drive victories in some of the most demanding games.

The University’s Magma Esports Workstations rely on Intel Core i7-12700 processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards and 500GB SSD drives with everything attached to Asus PRIME B660M motherboards.

Memory comes from Corsair, and the components slot inside Fractal Design Focus 2 clear-sided enclosures.

On the outside, Asus TUF 27in monitors with 165Hz refresh rates provide the space and speed esports players need – and they enjoy precision from Asus TUF Gaming H3 headsets, M3 mice and ROX Strix Scope TKL keyboards.

Because Kendrick concedes that “esports can have a significant barrier to entry” thanks to the cost and kit requirements, she also invested in Lenovo ThinkPad L14 and L15 laptops with Intel Core i5 and AMD Ryzen 5 processors that formed the basis of a student loan scheme.

Kendrick also appreciated Stone’s ongoing support once the PCs and laptops were deployed.

“We sometimes need to repair lids and hinges in laptops, or monitors. Our on-site Stone contact collects the kit and handles the repairs. It couldn’t be any easier.”

Kendrick leveraged Stone’s partnership with TOP-TEC to create an esports hub for practising, social gaming and competitive play.

TOP-TEC is one of Stone’s partners of choice for specialised gaming furniture when delivering turnkey gaming solutions, and the strong partnership between the two firms made collaboration and design even easier.

Extensive communication and slick 2D layouts and 3D renders from TOP-TEC’s experts mapped out what was possible – and the resulting esports hub is undeniably impressive.

The TOP-TEC Nebula Esports Booths feature overhead PC storage and internal cable management, there are illuminated Durham logos throughout, and Stone completed the deployment with Durham-branded seats from Noblechairs.

Kendrick said that “TOP-TEC understood what we were working with and helped massively with the design” – and TOP-TEC’s engineers delivered a “fantastic and seamless” installation.

Kendrick had needed reliable, high-quality PCs, fast and affordable laptops, the best peripherals and an immersive, branded esports hub – and that’s exactly what Stone and TOP-TEC delivered.

Stone, TOP-TEC, and Durham’s collaboration has turbo-charged esports at the University.

“We have multiple teams within twelve games,” explained Kendrick. “We recently won a national Halo competition, and our teams regularly come in the top five of the National Student Esports League.”

Esports isn’t just about success on the battlefield: it can reach those who may not otherwise engage with their peers or the university through more traditional means.

“We have successful female and non-binary teams,” says Kendrick, “and it gives all our students a sense of community. They have socials throughout the academic year, they go out for meals, and they host end-of-year awards. It’s truly lovely.”

“Esports brings people together, you play pretty much anywhere, and it’s marvellous for introverted people. It can only get bigger.”

Even though Durham’s deployment doesn’t form the basis of any academic courses, it’s still having a huge impact on students’ careers.

“Esports creates opportunities for students to get into the industry, and I use my own contacts to help our students attend industry events so they can network.”

Indeed, esports doesn’t just help students find careers in the gaming industry. They can explore software development, events management, marketing, and management. Esports also helps students develop their multitasking, decision-making, communication, and strategic skills while improving self-esteem, socialisation, and mental health.

Kendrick’s success means that she is “developing an outreach scheme for colleges and schools to show them that there’s a healthy way to play games and improve skills without harming education.”

Kendrick asserts that Stone and TOP-TEC’s hub will make this outreach easier, as there is now a facility that visiting school pupils and college students can use.

There’s no stopping Kendrick’s enthusiasm, especially with backup from Stone and TOP-TEC.

“Esports has become huge at Durham,” she says, “and it just came from me having an idea!”

Kendrick confirms that none of this would be possible without Stone and TOP-TEC.

“Working with Stone and TOP-TEC, it’s seamless. The support’s been great. There’s always lots of contact and having a dedicated member of staff on site is a massive help.”

As an esports enthusiast and participant, Kendrick wouldn’t want to restrict this growth to Durham.

“I absolutely recommend Stone to other universities. It’s so simple to organise, buy and support all in one go, and there’s plenty of choice and customisation. The students have been really impressed. You don’t get service like this anywhere else.”