By Faith Dynsmore
Esports is a type of professional video gaming. Takes the form of organized, multiplayer competition, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. At Guyer, Esports has three teams that play a game called Rocket League Soccer, which is a sports game competition played by characters that are cars.
Although the term “Esports” wasn’t coined until the year 2000, there were many events that built the groundwork for modern Esports to exist. The first official video game competition was held at Stanford University in 1972. It was dubbed the “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics”. Spacewar is a multiplayer space combat game. The prize to the winner was a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. (cdw.com/content/cdw/en/articles/hardware/history-of-esports.html)
Esports at Guyer offers many opportunities to students, such as scholarships and meeting new people within the videogaming business. Other responsibilities of the Esports members include promoting their team to gain more viewers via social media. Each team has a manager, whose role is to help organize training opportunities, recruiting new members and preparing the team for the competitions. Video and live streaming is also a big part of the roles in Esports. It is how they share their gaming with the students to gain followers and the attention of sponsors.
Justin Peacock, a senior at Guyer High School, is a very successful and active Esports player. He is the team captain, and he has been playing video games since he was only four years old. However, he really wasn’t introduced to Esports until he was 14. “it takes a particular person to be successful in Esports.” Justin said. He doesn’t find that video games get in the way of his school work, as most people may think. “School comes first,” he said.
Esports doesn’t get as much recognition as other clubs at Guyer may receive. They are hoping to get more participants in order for more people to know what they do and get interested on them. “In the past few tournaments, I personally and also some of my other teammates had just a few viewers on our streams,” Peacock said. It is expected that when the club grows more people will follow their work. Esports mainly gets streamed on a website called Twitch and Discord.
Hand eye coordination and memorization also play a big part in Esports, and it is truly a good way to give your brain a workout. “When I began to tell people the dynamics behind Esports, many people realized it is more complicated than they would think,” Peacock concluded.
