Alva Review-Courier -

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — In high school, other kids called Solomon Ring "a gaming nerd," alone in his room night after night staring at a screen, supposedly with no friends.

"It's more social than people think," Ring said. "You might be alone in your room, but you're alone with the same eight or 10 people all the time."

Playing together online, that is.

"Your team might be spread all across the country," Ring told Tulsa World. "But they're still your team."

The University of Tulsa sent out a survey a couple of years ago to ask students what amenities and new activities they wanted to see on campus.

Video games topped the list.

"And it wasn't even close," said Mel France, associate vice president for campus services. "Students made it very clear that this was a priority for them."

After looking at what other universities are doing to satisfy the demand for video gaming, TU spent several months renovating a little-used seating area near a cafeteria on campus. And TU's first Esports Lounge opened this month with lots of comfy chairs, high-res screens and basically every kind of gaming console known to man.

It became so instantly popular that a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd kept dozens of students waiting in the hallway, where they watched a "Call of Duty" squad gunning its way through enemy defenses live on a large-screen TV.

Ring, now a mechanical engineering freshman, plays on the TU "Call of Duty" team and coaches the "Overwatch" team, both competing against other college teams nationwide.

It may not be as physically demanding as, say, basketball or football, Ring said. But playing an e-sport at a competitive level takes just as much dedication. Maybe more.

Collegiate e-sport players can spend 15 to 20 hours per week practicing with the team, plus another 30 to 40 hours per week practicing on their own, Ring said.

"Balancing all of that with school work becomes extremely difficult," he said. But adversity brings a team together, no matter what kind of sport it is.

"There's a huge sense of brotherhood and camaraderie," Ring said. "The same eight people are together all the time, and we're all pushing ourselves to the limit. When we win, we celebrate and give each other a group hug just like any other kind of team would."

Of course, most students who use the Esports Lounge won't play competitively. They might not even get to hang out very often with the competitive players because the Hurricane video-gaming teams have their own separate practice area.

But for video-game fans, a player of Ring's caliber is like a star quarterback or point guard. Except cooler.

He doesn't have to worry about the nerd stereotype at TU.