High school esport tournament creates a promising outlook for the sport
New scholarship opportunities are available to students who excel in playing video games.
Esport scholarship opportunity: Washington is hosting its first in-person esport event with many opportunities for students. Having previously had no in-person events there has been no opportunity as big as this for gamers. “Although I can’t make it to the event I’m really excited to see some in-person events starting up” senior Jonathan Frame said.
The North America Scholastic Esports Association is a program created by Scholastic to provide opportunities in eSports for students currently enrolled in public and private schools through learning and scholarships. Esports is a new opportunity for many students in the school setting and organizations like these create an exciting future for students interested in esports.
While events and tournaments are usually held online, Scholastic has partnered with the group HighSchool.GG which is a CTE organization that is based around esports to host an in-person tournament with scholarships as the prizes. The event has many different tournaments for games such as Smash Brothers Ultimate, Valorant, Rocket League, and many other competitions that aren’t for specific games such as coding or cosplay.
Major prizes from the event include a $15,000 scholarship and many other scholarship opportunities for the many events that will take place. While the event is an esports tournament, the other competitions that are not for video games give students an opportunity to win money without having to play a game. Coding, cosplay, video editing and design are some of the few opportunities students will be able to take a part in.
“I think this is a really great opportunity for anyone interested in esports and anything gaming,” senior Jonathan Frame said.
Esports is a new sport in high schools, and many schools across the state have begun to create esport clubs and teams to compete. Holding these tournaments that give students the opportunity to win scholarships and gain experience is an exciting prospect for these students who have in interest in esports, whether that be interest in a career or as a hobby.
“It’s been very interesting seeing the evolution of how esports is seen on the high school level and I am very excited to see what new opportunities arise in the future,” senior Jayden Demmert said.
While plenty of esport events happen across the world, many students have felt that it was difficult to begin on a pathway to participate in these events or reach these levels. These associations like the North America Scholastic Esports Association are creating opportunities for students to take these steps to reach higher levels in esports while also supporting educations with scholarships and funds for students.
“I have been very into gaming and esports my entire life, and while I cannot go to this event I really look forward to participating in events like these in the future,” Demmert said.
This event takes place on May 21, 9am-6pm at Heritage High School in Vancouver, WA, and sign ups are still open. Any student interested in gaming can sign up on their website to take part in this big opportunity for scholarship money.
