eSports- breaking new ground

The term is well underway in New Zealand and we enjoy the embarrassment of riches, apart from those of our colleagues in Auckland, of having managed to weather the storm that has so affected this world and our tamariki.

My work last year saw me pursuing a venture and researching how we could transcend the gender gap within eSports. Being at a Girls School I was interested to see that students were not gaming for various reasons and my soon to be released paper will go more into my findings.

(Students in-game excitement nerves digital life and death)

The wero of the whole paper was that I had to create a sustainable eSports league that would allow students to enjoy eSports. With the help of my eSports team and in particular the Vice-captain (name withheld), we built a discord server to facilitate the Dunedin schools. Having already made a number of contacts from the previous year I knew there was an interest in League of Legends. I messaged a number of people and rather quickly got 10 teams registered for the competition. Most exciting for my school was the inclusion of Queens high another girls school.

The sport itself at school had received huge backing being recognised as a sport and including our first sports prizes during our Blues assembly. This has seen us grow from 1 team to 2 teams, tentatively know as OGHS first team and OGHS Development. Like any other team or squad, we have to be dynamic, if the firsts are down a player someone has to step out of the development into the firsts. The development team though may end up with either one of the coaches going in or (if they are really unlucky) yours truly taking the floor. The students love it when you join in it truly brings them joy, they are quick to compliment you when doing well. Like Kit Haines (A kiwi teacher) talked about in his blog recently sandboxing learning can be empowering and kids love nothing more than you getting into the sandbox with them.

(Otago Girls first-team development team and the Otago Boys Rectors All gaming under one roof)

This week after two weeks of friendly play it happened. Otago School Wide eSports clicked off (thanks to Kussi Hutardo-Stuart for that pun). With around 40 students playing League of Legends competitively. We have been playing across a series of Hubs at Otago Girls we have our two teams and then host the Otago Boys Rectors. Kings High school does the same with 2 teams and Queens High school coming in. Other schools are developing their capacity to have their students play. Having the groups with fans spectators and just a general buzz make the whole thing a really exciting environment. The students are quick to organise the matches and take scores friendships and advice blossom through our chat channels that have space to talk about subjects ranging from Arts and crafts to digital tech and coding.

Click off couldn't have been more exciting today as well as the first match for Otago Girls' first team was Queens. This is certainly the first two girls' schools in Otago to have a competitive eSports game (to my knowledge) on the week of international women's day we know well that each first opens up another door for our Wahine toa. Not that the score matters (though it does as it is sport and we won) but the after-match discussion again opened the floor for these students to talk about the game and be in a safe space where they could learn. The next few Thursdays look to be just as exciting with a tanatilising match between Otago Girls development and Queen's first round of next week both teams looking for their first wins. Training on Tuesday will be banter and a lot of theory as we look to push on.