Students who play video games alone in their rooms finally have a chance to join forces with their compatriots to play on a sanctioned high school team as proper athletes.
This school year, Murphy High School will join the nearly 3,000 U.S. high schools by adding its first e-sports team. Coach Alyssa Montague recently made her first cut from an application pool of 70 students down to 24. By the end of this protracted tryout, the team will be 20 strong.
Montague said the initial cut was “pretty difficult,” and finalizing the team roster is “something I’m not looking forward to.” She added that the students who will make the final cut will “have the right attitude,” and “understand that the team is more important than the individual talent.”
E-sports, which is shorthand for electronic sports, became popular in the early 2000s, when large gaming companies began hosting international tournaments where video game savants could gather and match their gaming skills against the best players in the world. The sport became so popular that high schools began to include gaming in their sports programs. E-sports has the added allure of cash prizes for winners.
“Some major tournaments offer $500 for each win,” Montague said.
Each e-sports player will choose between Minecraft and Call of Duty, then will form teams playing different positions, including a team consultant and a statistician. The Murphy e-sports team will compete with other regional high schools.
Just like in field sports, there are scouts and recruiters watching the matches. More than 125 colleges offer e-sports scholarships collectively worth $15 million annually.
The Murphy students drawn to the sport seem less interested in the cash rewards and more excited about playing the games. Rayna Killian (gamer name Wolfpup) loves Minecraft.
“I’m not great at the game, but I’m not that bad, either,” she said. “I love to play it because there are no limitations in the game.”
When asked about concerns many parents and teachers have regarding perceived violence in video games, Niles McCool (gamer name SparksRiver250) believes the violence in video games can actually be therapeutic.
“Instead of taking your anger out on a person, you can play a video game and blow off steam by creating and fighting inside the game,” he said.
Killian agrees with McCool. “They don’t make us want to shoot somebody,” she said. “It’s just a game.”
The competitions, called matches, are opened year-round, separated by semesters called the Fall Major and Spring Major so the team will have plenty of time to become cooperative and communicative – two skills essential in playing the sport. Despite the team being mostly boys, Harley Trantham (gamer name Raz) doesn’t think the stereotype applies.
“There is a gamer called Noisy Bothers who plays at the national level because they saw how skilled she was at Minecraft,” she said.
Four girls made the first cut, and the coach herself enjoys the shooting games. “They are my jam,” she said.
The team is excited to represent Murphy High, and will create their own logo and name. Nathan Perkins (gamer name nthn) hopes the team will choose the school colors of blue and gold.
“When we win,” he said, “I want everybody to know that we won for Murphy High School.”