Gaming Isn’t Just for Kids: What Teachers Need to Know About Esports

DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends and—of course—Fortnite.
You may know these as titles of popular video games, even if you aren’t strictly a “game addict”.

As a matter of fact video games and the communities, organizations and players surrounding them have become a global business—some worth potentially millions and millions of dollars.

These aren’t just games anymore; they have emerged, along with other massive titles such as Overwatch, as a phenomenon it seems everyone is racing to catch up with. Playing these games competitively, known as esports, is on the verge of becoming not only a force in the business and entertainment world, but a factor in the classroom as schools start esports leagues and curriculum springs up around gaming culture. So what do educators need to know about it?
Twenty-seven million people watched the League of Legends Championship in 2017—more than Game 7 of the World Series and the final game of the NBA Finals
Let’s start with the numbers, which are huge. Twitch, the leading game streaming platform, was purchased by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million dollars. Twenty-seven million people watched the League of Legends Championship in 2017—that’s more than Game 7 of the World Series (23.5 million) and the final game of the NBA Finals (18 million). And 71,000 people watch Ninja, a popular video game streamer, play games on Twitch every day. It’s not hard to see the draw for fans. It is virtually free to watch—all you need is an internet connection.
The shift to streaming and esports as the entertainment medium of choice for our students becomes clearer when you consider the demographics. Over 50 percent of baseball viewers are over the age of 55. It doesn’t get much better for the NFL or NBA either at 47 and and 37 respectively. Simply put, our kids are playing and, more importantly for these leagues, watching.

College and Universities all over the world are taking note as well. Currently, competitive esports are on the rise at both the high school and collegiate level with scholarships being offered to top esports players. It is important to keep in mind why this is happening. This is not an educational play—this is a business play. There is no “educational upside” to offering a football scholarship. Schools want the best football players so their stadium is full, they sell shirts and get high TV ratings—the exact same desire they have for esports players. It is not hard to envision a world where the next star college competitors are the Overwatch team members, or the NCAA Call of Duty Championship winners or the hot new Fortnite player Syracuse just landed.

The world is starting to acknowledge that competitive gaming is a multifaceted industry. It’s not just about liking video games. In order to be truly competitive, players must be highly skilled and devote incredible amounts of time and effort into practice. They must fine-tune their strategy and teamwork through expert coaching and stay sharp both mentally and physically. Esports could be just as much a valuable gateway into technology related jobs as teaching programming, robotics, graphic design and web design. Every student is different, and the pathway to their passions, is not the same. We’ve seen video games be the influence for thousands of the world’s most successful people (including one of your writers, who cites the game Civilization II as being formative in becoming an educator). Maybe esports is what captivates that hard to reach student. Maybe an educator uses it as a way to turn that passion into achievement.

It is clear that competitive gaming is not going anywhere and, in fact, might just be your students’ primary form of entertainment in the future, if it’s not already. What can you do to tap into this excitement and energy?

Source: edsurge.com