Kentucky pilots high school esports championship

Senior Tevin Merritt uses video games as an outlet—to relieve stress, to make friends, to escape from reality. When he gets home from school, when he wakes up on the weekends, even when he simply just needs to take a break, video games are there for him.

Merritt, a self-described gamer, said video games play a large role in his life and are a huge hobby of his.

Following the first KHSAA gaming championship coming to a close in Kentucky, many students like Merritt wonder how long it will be until Boone becomes involved.

In 2019, the phenomena of competitive online gaming, or “esports,” officially became a $1 billion dollar industry, and as it continues to grow, prominent names like basketball star Michael Jordan and hip-hop artist Aubrey “Drake” Graham have begun to invest in esports teams.

Philippa Warr, a freelance esports reporter, said he believes the appeal of esports “is how it puts a spotlight on people and their relationship with gaming.” With the increasing number of teens and adults alike playing video games, Warr believes it’s only natural for esports to be so popular.

Esports was introduced into high schools through PlayVS, a company based out of California. They entered into a partnership with The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) last year to implement scholastic esports teams for two seasons, one in fall of 2018 and the other in the following spring of 2019.

Founder and CEO of PlayVS Delane Parnell believes esports is more than just playing games.

“It can be used to help students grow their STEM interests and develop valuable life skills,” he said in a press release.

PlayVS will also give participants the opportunity for scholarship programs at more than 200 colleges and universities, where they can continue pursuing esports.

Last fall, “Season Zero” was played at high schools in five states, Kentucky being one of them. The teams were co-ed, and consisted of five students playing “League of Legends,” a popular multiplayer online battle arena by Riot Games.

Each of the states had its own championship, with Kentucky’s on Jan. 28, and live-streamed on the PlayVS Twitch.tv account. Local school St. Henry finished runner-up, losing to Boyle County 2-0 in a best of three.

Season Zero was “absolutely a success,” James Kozachuk, head of community at PlayVS said in an email interview. “Each state had an amazing in-person championship, and we got to personally see students, coaches, and parents interact with each other in a positive way.”

For the upcoming inaugural spring season, two more video games will be added to the program, “Rocket League,” and “SMITE.” Kozachuk said PlayVS would not be including “realistic first-person shooter games” into their program, though he did not make it clear as to why.

The 2019 spring season will also include four more states—Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Texas Charter League—which recently gave sanction for PlayVS to introduce an esports scene into their high schools.

On if Boone will become involved, athletic director Marty Steele said that the topic of esports was brought up during his latest A.D. meeting, but the requirement of a dedicated coach tabled the discussion.

According to Steele, the big questions the athletic directors have are, “Who pays for the coach? Would the district pay for it?” he said over email, mentioning that the district only recently agreed to pay for a bowling coach after years of local fundraising.

Steele also said that no students have approached him over the possibility of a Boone esports program.

“I’m sure there are students who might be interested in this, but it was not listed on the last KHSAA survey so I have no idea how many,” Steele said.

Merritt will be graduating in May, but said he wishes there had been an esports program at Boone during his time at the school.

“I’m really competitive, and I play a lot of (online gaming tournaments) with my friends,” Merritt said. “I just really like the competing in gaming … I think Boone doing esports would be a good thing.”