High schools are forming ESports leagues

Electronic sports or ESports are played either on traditional video game consoles or personal computers. You may have recently heard of sixteen-year-old Kyle Giersdorf who won $3 million dollars playing in a Fortnite World Cup. ESports have become a billion-dollar industry in a very short period of time.

As of 2019 over 115 colleges and universities are now offering some sort of ESports scholarship program. Compare that to just five years ago when there was only one program – Robert Morris University, which offered a $4,000 scholarship to each of its varsity members. Some schools, like New York University now offer full tuition scholarships.

With colleges recruiting players, it was only a matter of time before high schools started programs of their own. High school teams are popping up all over the country. While traveling through North Dakota this summer, I learned that 14 high schools are forming a league for the upcoming school year.

Some of these schools are in towns in North Dakota that have less than a thousand people in them. The high school I graduated from was one of the schools listed and its population of 1286 makes it similar in size to Waitsburg.

So where is the money coming from for all of this? The size of the viewership audience for ESports is projected to grow to 454 million viewers this year. Advertising to this audience and sponsorship from video game companies are driving the revenue. A quick online search leads to a step-by-step guide for setting up a team and includes resources for getting grant money.

What are the downsides? Prize money in these tournaments goes only to a few top finishers. At the college level, that means scholarship money. Professional players are known to practice 50 hours a week, with some practicing even longer. Games can fall out of favor or get updated so specializing on only one game can mean a quick end to a career. Additionally, professional careers generally start in mid to late teens and end in the early twenties.

Which games are included in the ESports leagues? Here is a list of some of the most popular ESports games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite, Rocket League, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Super Smash Bros. Melee, StarCraft II and Overwatch. There are others, but the games I listed above get the largest following.