Carlmont logs into esports league

Sean Liuli

While the pandemic has largely kept students from playing most traditional sports, Carlmont’s newest addition to its athletics program persists online.

As the fall season of the PlayVS high school esports league came to a close in mid-December of last year, Carlmont students are now off again to the races in the winter season of the official High School Esports League.

The High School Esports League is the single largest high school-level esports league in the nation, with more than 2,100 schools and 100,000 players competing in it every season.

The program began in the Fall of 2017 and has provided the next generation of esports players with a competitive outlet.

Not only does the program provide a platform in which high school players can compete, but it also supports students’ academics, as they use esports as an opportunity to promote STEM learning, including programs surrounding many computer science fieds, to high school students across the nation.

The program’s large participation numbers have not wavered since the start of the pandemic, and many students attribute this to the large amounts of downtime they have between and after their online classes.

“I definitely think I would not have been able to juggle school, esports, and college applications if we weren’t in quarantine. Shorter school hours and transit time gave me a lot of extra time, so I just had more time than I would without quarantine,” Colin Bierwagen, a senior who plays on one of the school’s Rocket League teams, said.

Students participating in esports can also agree that overall, their sport has not been greatly affected by quarantine. They find that quarantine has made participation easier, contrary to what is true for most other traditional sports.

“I planned on playing soccer for the freshman team, but sadly, COVID-19 ruined that. I still have to prioritize school over esports, but videogames are already a major pastime in quarantine, so I can balance both very well,” Joshua Lisi, a freshman who also participates in one of the school’s Rocket League teams, said.

However, the endurance of esports during quarantine is not the only thing that sets it apart from traditional sports. Students find that there are many aspects of an esports team that cannot be found in a traditional basketball or football team.

“Rocket League was a lot more freeform because we were able to plan our own schedule. But, we didn’t have a coach, so we had to figure out how to get better on our own,” Bierwagen said.

Although the two types of sports share their sets of differences, it is also clear that they have a fair share of similarities.

“The physical difference between traditional sports and esports is pretty evident already, but the strategy, mentality, and teamwork are very similar,” Lisi said. “Nearing the end of the Fall PlayVS season, I remember we were playing our game for Top 8, and it felt like a regular sport where teammates would communicate and work together really well in decisive moments.”

Esports continues to grow and is just beginning to cement itself alongside traditional sports in the high school setting. However, students like Lisi can agree that esports still have a long way to go before being entirely accepted in schools like other traditional sports.

“When compared to traditional sports where there’s a lot more physical demand, it will always be seen as easier and taken a lot less seriously despite putting tons of hours into muscle memory and strategy,” Lisi said. “Esports will definitely not be as popular as other sports like football.”

Amber Chia and Sean Liuli X Y

ASean Liuli and Amber Chia