On December 9, the Fort Worth ISD Teaching and Learning Center became a temporary “esports arena” for approximately a hundred high school students who learned about the new program introduced by the district this fall.
Fort Worth ISD has joined the High School Esports League (HSEL) to bring competitive gaming to campuses throughout the community.
“This was an excellent opportunity to engage a traditionally marginalized group of students and turn their passion for video games into a viable career path,” said Fort Worth ISD Career and Technical Education Executive Director Daphne Rickard in a press release. “Other districts are experiencing increased school attendance and academic performance from students participating in esports, and we are enthusiastic about having the same effect here.”
The HSEL is the largest competitive gaming organization in North America and counts more than 140,000 competitors. Gamers can earn scholarships, prize winnings, and sponsorships through participating in events. HSEL has developed a gaming curriculum that campuses can use to educate students.
The gaming curriculum aims to teach skills useful for programming, game design, development, and numerous other real-world skills. Educators believe that participation in esports can improve students’ communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.
“Esports has the power to bring together a group of strangers that would rarely speak to each other at school, easily become friends, and work together to win!” Daisy Rueda, president of one of the Fort Worth ISD teams said. “I am learning to be a leader for my club, and the experience has inspired me to continue seeking leadership roles wherever I go in the future.”
HSEL provides a rules and regulations framework for how events are conducted and how players may act. The organization also restricts competitions to a limited number of games. Currently, events are held for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, NBA 2K21 and 2K22, Rocket League, Rainbow Six: Siege, Hearthstone, Madden 22, Minecraft: Survival, Valorant, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and 10 Minute Chess.
Professional gamers have opportunities to earn significant monetary prizes. Gamers can earn tens of thousands from a single victory, and some competitive teams win millions each year. A recent tournament in Bucharest, Romania, saw $1 million in total prizes. The winning team took home $400,000.
Insider Intelligence, an analytics firm, says that esports growth has exploded since the mid-2010s. They claim that an average of 26 million people will watch esports online each month in 2021. The organization anticipates as many as 31 million monthly viewers by 2023.
More than 300 colleges offer scholarship opportunities to gamers to compete on school teams. Scholarships tend to be partial and generally range from $500 to $8,000, though some campuses are beginning to offer more significant amounts.
Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania became the first to provide full-ride scholarships in 2018 when it awarded all 16 team players scholarships. The team won the inaugural ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship in 2019.