Had an e-mail blast come across my desk for a high school activity my wife pinged me on to send our son to get signed up for. The new Brookings High School eSports League:
This should not come as a surprise to South Dakotans, as it was piloted last year in a number of schools:
The activities association began exploring the addition of esports about four years ago because of popular demand, Swartos said. Nationally, more states have sanctioned the sport. Colleges also offer esports scholarships and have their own competitive teams. It has become a multibillion-dollar business with an estimated 3.26 billion people worldwide playing video games.
The popularity of gaming continues to grow, and the SDHSAA saw an opportunity to engage more students in school activities.
and..
The esports pilot started with four competitive titles: Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., League of Legends and chess. Rocket League is a soccer-type game with cars rather than people playing the sport. Super Smash Bros. uses characters from Nintendo games who fight to knock each other out of the arena. In League of Legends, two teams of five players battle to destroy the opposing team’s base. Besides Super Smash Bros., all the other games are played on PCs.
It’s not a terrible idea.. but a few of the games seem to be a bit dated and geared towards a younger crowd (Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros). Regardless, dust off that game controller for your kids, as they prepare to participate in South Dakota’s newest high school sporting teams.