Starting an esports team can yield many benefits for a K12 or higher education institution, but those benefits aren't fully understood yet. This article helps identify the value that an esports team brings to a K-12 or college institution.
What is Esports?
Before we can begin to understand the benefits of esports within educational institutions, let's explore this emerging arena itself. Esports, short for electronic sports, is the rising field of competitive video gaming. Players compete individually or on teams in popular video games such as Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Dota and others. Games are played either on PCs or consoles, depending on the game’s availability. For example, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a popular esports fighting game, is only available for the Nintendo Switch.
Much like traditional sports, the esports industry presents opportunities for athlete sponsorship and the chance to become a professional. In other words, kids who grew up hearing that “playing video games isn't a profession” may have a bone to pick with some people. Similar to other professional sports, esports has a vibrant and growing high school and college scene in addition to the professional one.
The following are some of the most common types of video games played in the esports realm:
Strategy Games: These types of games are exactly what they seem — multiplayer games in which teams must strategize to determine the best ways to beat their opponents to capture their competitors’ territory. These can include real-time strategy games, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, card and deck building games and auto battlers.
Examples: Starcraft, Warcraft III
Shooter Games: This classification of games can include class-based shooters (characters with unique abilities that offer special advantages to players), battle royale games (up to 100 players compete against one another in a giant arena with whatever they find and using whatever resources they collect) and squad-based shooters (teams competing against one another in an environment, sometimes completing an objective such as capture the flag).
Examples: Call of Duty, APEX Legends, Fortnite, Counter-Strike
Sports Games: Sometimes referred to as sports simulators, these games are the digital recreation of popular sports including football, soccer, basketball, racing, boxing and more. These games are celebrated for their realism as well as their long lineage in esports history.
Examples: FIFA, NBA 2K, Fight Night, Madden
Fighting Games: These games involve players squaring off against each other individually or on a team. These games can trace their esports heritage back to the days of arcade cabinets when players would wait to take on one another, quarters at the ready. The fighting games genre has evolved significantly since the arcade days, but the core gameplay philosophy has remained the same.
Examples: Super Smash Bros., Marvel vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Street Fighter
Role Playing Games: In these games, players assume different types of roles within a fictional world. Role playing games include many types of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG) in which teams adopt different characters and compete against other teams in a fictional realm.
Examples: League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Dota 2
Other Games: There are some games that are not as prominent in the esports scene but still deserve recognition. For example, rhythm-based games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero are not as popular in competition, despite making waves during their respective periods. However, they did pave the way for new rhythm games such as Beat Saber. VR competition games, such as Robo Recall and the aforementioned Beat Saber are becoming more popular, but VR technology has not taken off yet to the point where these games are part of mainstream esports. Retro and arcade games, such as Tetris and Donkey Kong still hold a place in the hearts of many older gamers, though their appearance in the esports scene isn’t common, and you likely won’t find a college or high school team competing in these games.
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