There are more than 21 million video game players in Canada, but only a few thousand are skilled enough to compete in major eSports championships and win fame and fortune.
Some of those skilled players include students from Lindale and Sunningdale schools, which formed an eSports team last year. The group has over 36 participants from both schools, with four youths forming the competitive team that takes on other elementary and high school students from across Saskatchewan and Canada.
Those four players — Cruz Seaborg, Hudson Newsham, Davis Campbell and Jacob Duncan — will participate in an online national eSports tournament on Saturday, April 20, with teams of three squaring off while playing Rocket League, where rocket-powered vehicles play soccer.
The team’s first game is at 7 a.m. because the tournament is hosted in Eastern Canada. It can reach the final bracket if it wins two games, but it will be out if it loses two matches.
Durston McKenna, vice-principal at Sunningdale, explained that he was at King George School during the pandemic when physical sports activities were cancelled, so students competed casually in weekly eSports games.
He began looking for other opportunities for his students, as he knew the eSports scene was growing nationwide and colleges were offering eSports-related scholarships. Furthermore, a game called League of Legends started “blowing up” as millions of people across North America started watching others play.
Extracurricular activities include everything from chess to basketball to sewing to eSports, so the joint club gathers kids who fit this type of mould, said Eric Campbell, principal of Lindale. Furthermore, they can join a team, communicate with others, experience leadership, strategize and commit to a goal.
“(These) are all things you would see in a traditional sport, but we do it at lunch here at Lindale,” added Campbell. “And it’s great (and) we love it.”
The Saskatchewan Esports Association (SEA) hosted a tournament in December for elementary and high school youths. This was the Lindale-Sunningdale team’s second-ever tournament, while it was the first for others.
While the goal is to create proper age categories for younger and older youths — some older students are world-ranked champions — the SEA has opened its tournaments to everyone to grow the activity, said McKenna.
Walker Newsham, a Grade 8 student at Lindale, said it was fascinating to compete against some teams because they were pulling off tricks that the younger players had never seen before.
“Most of them were high school teams, so you kind of expected it. But, when we (play against) more elementary schools, it’s a lot more at our level,” he said.
Newsham doesn’t play competitively but, instead, is the team manager who helps behind the scenes and organizes the players.
“Walker’s got a pretty big job. He’s very responsible in the fact we ask him to do these things, and he easily does them … ,” said Campbell. “Without Walker, this doesn’t happen.”
Newsham was humbled by the praise, saying he works in the background because he’s “the only techie kid” at Lindale who can set up everything.
This year’s national tournament is an invitational event because most provincial eSports leagues have started within the past few years, said McKenna. Next year, the goal is to have provincial playoffs, with the top two teams competing at nationals.
The Lindale-Sunningdale U-14 team stood out during this year’s provincial contest, which is why it will compete nationally, he added.
The team never expected to reach nationals in its second year, especially since the four competitive players are in Grade 6 and only joined last year. However, the four youths said they have learned teamwork, communication skills and strategic thinking.
“It’s fun to watch them play,” said Campbell. “And when we sit in (the office) to do it, it’s fun to hear ’em get excited and give each other heck when they need it.”
The team usually practises daily but hasn’t been as regular because of the recent job action. Yet, the goal is to start practising from home because of the game’s online nature. Also, after the Easter break, the team will engage in a two-week blitz of practices to prepare for nationals.
“It’s not recreational (anymore),” added Campbell. “We have to put some work into it.”
