By Kailee Dunn

With just a little touch of magic a room of quiet and pensive players erupts with glee as a gamer is victorious.

Each Friday, the EWU Gamers Club hosts Friday Night Magic, where a group of 18 to 24 students battle it out in a “Magic: The Gathering” card game tournament.

Gamers club President and sophomore Lorna Harris explained that Friday Night Magic is a free weekly event.

The tournament takes place in PUB 263. Registration to play starts at 3:30 p.m., and play begins at 4:30 p.m.

“[Magic has] got a lot of rules. It takes a lot of brains, I guess you could say,” Harris said. “There are some times where you can make the right move and can feel so great about yourself. [I enjoy] the confidence that can come from making smart moves.”

Harris strongly encourages new players to stop and give the game a try.

“It’s pretty fun. It’s just challenging. [Friday Night Magic] would definitely be a good place because it’s free and there’s a lot of people who would be willing to help you,” she said.

Senior Brett Scott agreed that Friday Night Magic is a good place for beginners.

“These events are very good for beginners, so don’t be afraid to come. Even if you don’t know anything about the game, it’s good to come and get a start here,” said Scott.

In addition to the tournament being free of charge, prizes are also given out throughout the night.

“There are prizes for people that win first through third, and there’s a random prize. Even if you didn’t get first through third, even if you got 12th, there’s still the option of getting something,” Harris said.

Typically, a prize will be a new pack of cards or a promo card.

According to vice president of the Gamers Club, Bryan Smith, Friday Night Magic is a large part of the Gamers Club, but they do play other games.

“We play League of Legends down in the dungeon. We play a game called Smite now, and Cards Against Humanity is great. Even just regular Apples to Apples is fun,” said Smith.

The dungeon, Smith refers to, is also another name for the Rendezvous Room, located in the PUB near Eagle Espresso.

Smith explained the advantages to being a paying gamers club member versus a non-paying.

“A paid member spends $25 down at the customer service desk in the bookstore and that gives you discounts on some of the big events like game day. You get a 10 percent discount on all gaming products that are not electronic, and then once you spend $25 there, they’ll give you a $5 gift card to the bookstore,” Smith said.

Off-campus businesses may also give paid members discounts. According to Smith, two stores that will give discounts are A Piece of Mind in Cheney and Love at First Bite in Spokane.

The big events that Smith was referring to are the quarterly pre-release day and game day.

“Our pre-release events get up to 30 or 40 people. A pre-release is the week before the release [of a new set of cards] and then there’s game day, which is at the beginning of March and a few weeks after the release,” said Harris.

If anyone is interested in playing, cards are on sale in the bookstore.

The Gamers Haven, Uncle’s Games and Merlyn’s in Spokane all host their own Friday Night Magic, at 6 p.m.

For more information, please join the EWU Gamers Club Facebook group.

“The gamers club is just a great way to get together,” Smith said. “It’s just a club that was created by gamers, for gamers to get together and game. And that’s exactly what we try and do.”