In the summer of 2018, Carrollton computer science teacher Robby Blakemore was finalizing plans to form a school esports club when then-Trojans athletic director Paul Fitz-Simons suggested something different.
“We had a lot of students interested in forming a esports club and were making one when (Fitz-Simons) came to me and said the GHSA would be adding esports, and would we like to give it a shot. We were already ready to go. It happened so quick. First, it was summer and the next thing, we had an esports program. It’s taken off. Now, we have a middle school program, so there’s a feeder system. It appeals to every type of student.”
Esports — short for electronic sports, meaning video games — is one of the Georgia High School Association’s fastest growing sports with more than 200 teams now competing in it. The GHSA’s spring state championships take place Saturday at the Bartow County Schools Esports Arena.
The GHSA, along with other organizations supporting the burgeoning sport, including NFHS and PlayVS, treat it like any other team sport, with championship trophies and medals awarded. Teams, which practice during the week and are led by a coach, can earn varsity letters and compete in a team setting the way any traditional student-athlete who played basketball or football would.
Unlike most GHSA sports, esports has seasons in fall and spring, with each ending in champions being rewarded.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
When the NFHS launched esports in the fall of 2018, the GHSA was one of just five states to participate, with just six Georgia schools participating. By the time the spring season rolled around in 2019, there were 50 GHSA teams. This spring, 211 schools participated, up from 200 during the fall season.
Esports is not just playing video games,” said Tanya Anderson, who has served as the GHSA’s esports coordinator since the 2020-21 school year. “It’s a competition where you’re with your team, in person, being coached. It’s a safe space to compete in a game you enjoy. It gives these students a sense of inclusion, and they feel they’re a part of the school spirit. All of the elements that come together in competitive sports are here in esports.”
Carrollton’s program growth reflects the sports’ broader growth. The Trojans had one team and 12 players in 2018. Now they have 70 players spread across 20 teams. Blakemore estimates that around 70% of those players had previously not participated in a sport or extracurricular activities, with that number exceeding 80% if you don’t count the marching band.
Esports’ growth at the high school level has added more games to the field of competition. During the 2018 championships, there were just two qualifying games, League of Legends and Rocket League, and one classification. For Saturday’s championships, the current format has three classifications (1A-2A, 3A-4A and 5A-6A) competing in Madden, NBA2K, Rocket League and Splatoon.
“At first, with League of Legends, it was mostly my computer science students on the team,” Blakemore said. “But now, with Madden and NBA2K, people from the football and basketball teams are joining. We have people from the chess club who play.
The Trojans’ eclectic roster plays into the NFHS’s designed strategy for increased participation in sports.
“The ultimate goal was getting more students to participate in after school programs, whether it’s traditional sports, speech, debate, or esports, and all of those provide a way to bring in a student that generally was not involved in any after school activities. For us, we look at things like, how do you grow from eight million participants to nine million? Esports have been an activity to get us there. For us, any kid under the guidance of an adult coach is a good thing for the students”,” Koski said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Darius Mekande, a senior at Carrollton, has been a lifelong gamer who played youth soccer as a preteen, but had never participated in after school activities before joining the esports team.
“One thing I’ve learned is communication is the most essential skill to master,” Mekande said. “No matter how talented you are, a team can’t function without it.”
The platform in which all NFHS state associations compete on is PlayVS, which organizes and manages all sanctioned esports competitions, with team creation, scheduling and statistics all falling under its purview. Most important, they have created a rule book, and remotely monitor all competitions for integrity, ensuring that cheating or technical issues are quickly resolved.
“Our sport and organization are only legitimate if you take competitive integrity seriously,” PlayVS CEO Jon Chapman said. “We’ve had the good fortune of investors that really built out that infrastructure through are league operations team, which monitors those issues and if there is a dispute, we’ll intervene and make a ruling, just like how NFL replay uses officials in New York.”
When PlayVS and NFHS first launched esports, the burden was on the schools or players to pay their way into the program. Chapman said strong investor interest, coupled with sponsorships, has made playing esports free to the players now.
“When I got here in 2023, we wanted to build a similar structure to how the NFL monetizes and drives its revenue,” Chapman said. “They have ticket sales, which of course we won’t have, but they also have official wireless companies of the NFL, and an official pizza of the NFL. So we asked (chief revenue officer of the NFL) Renie Anderson, who built that sponsorship program for the NFL, to join our board, because we thought we could learn from how she sets up that structure. We’ve been following it a lot and are starting to see success. JBL is the official headset for PlayVS, and Zenni is our official eyewear.”
Blakemore said his esports program offers tech services, such as smartphone screen repair, custom computers and LED setup, and puts money earned from that work back into the program.
Anderson said the GHSA is focused on growing the number of participating players.
“We’re the leader among the 20 state associations that compete in the NFHS,” Anderson said. “What we’re seeing now is growth in participation of the current programs we have. We have 2,962 participants this year, and that’s a number I look to see grow.”
Mekande has the following advice for any student considering joining the esports world.
“Go for it!” he said. “It’s a great way to represent your school doing what you love. Also, you’ll make many friends along the way.”
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