The Full Story
ABOUT ESPORTS
The eSports team was formed in the Spring of 2022. We entered our first league competition in the Fall 2022 by joining the NERIC eSports Fall League. It is open to students in grades 9-12 that are at least 13 years of age. The Boquet Valley Esports team offer students a chance to participate in video game competitions against high school across the state. Our school currently participates Rocket League and Minecraft. Additional games and teams will be added in the near future.
WHY ESPORTS?
It’s a field exploding with opportunity.
The worldwide esports audience is massive, at 474 million, and there are more than 8 million active streamers on Twitch. Discord, also popular among gamers, Discord has over 140 million active monthly users and 300 million registered accounts, and is valued at $7 billion.
While the esports industry as a whole is already a billion-dollar business, it is expected to continue to grow, with an anticipated 2024 value of $1.6 billion, according to Statista.com.
According to Indeed.com, a gaming manager for Blizzard Entertainment, a division of esports juggernaut Activision Blizzard, can earn up to $155,000, while a freelance esports and video game writer can earn an average salary of $54,226, according to ZipRecruiter.
Also, major esports competitions are multifaceted endeavors with worldwide audiences and multimillion-dollar prize pools.
MISSION
Under Maintanence
1. Collaboration and teamwork skills
A successful esports team is centered around teamwork and communication. Similarly, to any sports team, students need to understand their team members’ skill sets and learn how to work together to complement each other’s abilities during competitions. A competitive esports team helps students take their gaming to the next level, learning leadership, sportsmanship, and communication skills as they play.
2. Increased academic and social engagement
An academic esports team gives students a way to channel their recreational video gaming into something that they can engage in at school alongside their peers. Students create connections with peers through their shared interest in gaming, and even the most disengaged students often begin looking forward to coming to school because of the community aspect of esports. This transcends to the classroom, where students are more motivated to maintain their academic performance and receive good grades in order to qualify for the esports team––much like any school sports team would require passing grades to be a member.
3. Exploration of STEM concepts and career paths
Esports offers a variety of ways for students to engage in STEM concepts, which can lead them to pursue STEM pathways in college and their careers. For example, students learn mathematics skills through their gameplay stats, utilizing data analysis and math to build a stronger strategy in the future. Additionally, esports plays an important part in students’ confidence with technology. Many students will begin exploring computers, processing, and even video game programming. Some students even learn to build their own computers to create the best gaming equipment.
4. Improved brain function and capabilities
There are several benefits of video gaming on the brain, with evidence that gaming can lead to enhanced visual perception, improved memory, and better attention and focus. These skills are not only helpful to students in their gaming, but also can have a positive effect on student wellbeing and academic performance. In the same way, to any extracurricular, being part of an esports team can improve students’ time management and task completion in school.
5. Tournaments offer peer connections and college and scholarship opportunities
Tournaments and peer connections are the main parts of academic esports that differentiate esports gaming from at-home gaming. Students compete alongside their team members in tournaments both virtually and in-person, with students from schools as close as the same district and as far as the other side of the world! Esports tournaments bring students from different backgrounds and cultures together through their shared interest in gaming. Academic esports even opens up college pathways for many students, with tournaments rewarding significant scholarships and universities recruiting students to participate on their esports teams.
2023 Fall Season (2nd season)
Empire State Scholastic Esports Federation (ESSEF)
2022 Fall Season (1st season)
5 BENEFITS OF ESPORTS IN SCHOOLS?
