High Schools Sports Programs For Video Games
You may not be talented out on the court, but you’re certainly skilled when a controller is in your hand.
Lucky for video game players, competitive video game playing, also known as esports, is now a high school varsity sport in eight states. It began with Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in the fall of 2018.
A few months later, the National Federation of State High School Associations said Alabama, Mississippi and Texas Charter schools joined the group.
In February, as part of the Johnson STEM Activity Center, there was a competition between North Atlanta High School and Grady High School. Two teams of students with six players each faced off in a video game game called “Smite,” one of the three high-school-sanctioned esport games, in which they battle each other as gods and other mythological characters.
There was once a time where playing video games as a career was considered a pipe dream, but from the looks of it, that’s no longer the case. Some students are even supporting their families just from competitive video game playing. Even universities such as New York University and the University of California, Irvine are now offering scholarships for video games, making the career trajectory for esports more similar to traditional sports.
By: Maytinee Kramer
