The stigma that Esports has no benefit to your future holds back a multitude of opportunities for students who are experienced in video games. The esports club has a variety of games you can participate in, in addition to scholarships you can win if you win the game. The Blue and White interviewed the sponsor, Mrs. Luddy, Officer Anna Bryant, and student Emery Davis, who have won Esports tournaments, to see their viewpoint of the esports experience.
Beginning with Mrs. Luddy sponsors Esports, due to the impact esports has made in her son’s life. She saw the impact it could make at the school and took it upon herself to start the esports club. Mrs Luddy explained. “My son is very active in esports. He was actually part of a community that recently got shut down by Meta. But he was actually a pro esports player even though he’s in high school, and I’ve seen what Esports can do for people. I know that there are schools that actually offer college scholarships for people to go to their school and play certain esports we are now part of a community.”
Many of you may be wondering what goes on in esports and how the esports club meetings are held. She begins with the plans for the year. Since esports is becoming a well-known club, some changes will need to be made for next year, as it will become more serious and competitive. She continues: “As a program where we’re building and getting stronger, the district this year made it where every high school in Orange County has an Esports program. We’re going to actually be part of athletics next year, so we’re transitioning into that. [During] our general club meetings, which are just for fun for people to play. [Having them] gives us a chance to see who’s out there that has good playing skills. We actually have two seasons. We’re just finishing up our fall season, which was kind of a growing season for us. In January, we’ll have tryouts again for the spring and we hope to have a very competitive program because we actually play against schools from all over the country and all over Florida.”
Senior Anna Bryant, the historian, shares her viewpoint of their activities during these meetings including things that she enjoys: “All we do is we talk about things like video games, and then at the end of every meeting we’ll have a free play. So if you enjoy playing a game or if you want to try out a new game, you can do that for like an hour at the end of every meeting. I’ve just been kind of playing video games my whole life and Esports is a way where people with similar interests can come together and play video games and talk about video games and it’s a way to show my skills. I’m the team captain for Mario Kart, so I played that outside of school alongside Stardew Valley [in addition to] Animal Crossing, but I don’t really have time for it anymore because of school. I became a historian because this is my senior year. I wanted to have some kind of impact on the club for my final year.”
For those who are interested in Esports, Mrs. Luddy goes over some requirements you must have in order to join. Just like any club, being a good student with a good GPA is a must.
“If you want to join Esports, the big thing is to make sure that you, of course, follow the student code of conduct. You want to make sure that you have good grades, because you have to have over a 2.0 cumulative GPA unweighted, and then also just be practicing the main games that we have right now that the district allows us to play. We can play Smash Brothers Splatoon Three, Mario Kart Eight Rocket League, [and] we can also do a League of Legends group if I have enough people that played League of Legends. And then the other one that we could do that I don’t know a whole lot about is Hearthstone. So those are the main games that we can play here on campus, because the district doesn’t allow us to pay for anything that’s a first-person shooter.”
Parents tend to have doubts about their children’s future when they hear their child wants to commit their free time to video games. Due to Esports being fairly new, many people are not educated about the real opportunities that it has. Mrs. Luddy shares her words of advice when it comes to this conversation, saying: “Even though people think [Esports is] just playing video games. There are a lot of opportunities out there. So with gaming, a lot of people who get very interested in gaming go into programming [to] become creators of the games. Get into gaming, get into computer science if you have an interest in that, because that’s one of the things that I teach. Just really knowing that it’s a big thing and that they do have scholarships out there. A lot of parents don’t realize that. They think ‘Oh, you’re just playing video games. You don’t need to play that.’ I’ve had some players on our teams, [where] the parents don’t understand that. The [parents] will pull them out in the middle of the game, or they’ll tell them they’re grounded, they can’t play and their team is expecting them to be there. [The parents should] know our teams are very competitive, they have to make sure that they understand that, and that it’s a team sport. Just like any other sport, you have to be in all of your events.”
For those of you who may not know, Full Sail University has an 11,200 square feet arena called The Fortress made especially for Esports down in Orlando. Their campus provides a Game Business and Esports Bachelor’s degree in addition to hosting Esports competitions with scholarships. With a platform called Play Versus, Full Sail came out to our school with technology booths in the gym. They hosted a Super Smash Bros tournament for each period. The winners have an opportunity to play at Full Sail on the 18th and win scholarship money and a trophy for our school.
Anna Bryant explains what Esports is like, “I’ve just been kind of playing video games my whole life, and Esports is a way where people with similar interests can come together and play video games and talk about video games, and it’s a way to show my skills. I’m the team captain for Mario Kart, so I played that outside of school alongside Stardew Valley.”
Emery Davis describes the connections that he’s made with students who also love video games saying, “I’ve made a lot of great friends in Esports.” However, Esports is more than just having fun; it also requires some commitment. He goes on to say, “I would say you have to have dedication to the game, show sportsmanship, show courage, and always take responsibility.”
All in all, Esports is a multifaceted sport requiring you to use skills like hand-eye coordination, cooperation and leadership with your team, and lots of practice. Don’t be afraid to try out during the spring; you might have the chance at a scholarship!
