SEARCY, AR. (LP) — Last year, Searcy High School added a new activity for us students to take part in– Esports. Esports is the name for competitive gaming and little do we all know, pro gaming is one of the hottest topics in entertainment to date. So to speak, why is it even important? Why is this even a thing?
Professional gaming has taken the world by storm and continues to thrive within the minds of children and adults today. Because of its popularity and consideration as a job, Searcy High School and other local schools have decided to bring it into action as an activity for students to participate in. Last year was when Esports was introduced to Searcy High and apparently, they were very good. Having came in 2nd place in the championship finals, coach of this years Esports team, Brandon Renuard, couldn’t agree more himself. In the state championship, The Searcy Esports team had every team beat except one team that they clearly couldn’t defeat as easily. “In League of Legends we made it all the way to the finals and then lost in the finals, so we got runner-up. We dominated every team except for that final team– they kicked our butts. It was definitely room for improvement,” says Coach Renuard.
Locally Esports is popular amongst the youth of today, ranging from 7-18 years of age. Most teens insist on playing sports games like Madden or 2K, or some prefer the popular game Fortnite. The inner strokes to being a professional gamer is quite the astonishing catch for most oldies from back in the day, but not in a good way. Even my parents have an issue with Esports being considered a form of profession. I personally think it gives children or people in general a better chance for success with more opportunities knocking at their door. Therefore, pro gaming should remain a thing for the next generation.
“I think it’s eventually going to get REALLY big, I mean if you just look at how far it’s come in the last 10 years. Like League of Legends has world championships,” says Coach Renuard. He then discussed how the popular RPG game began its couple of tourneys for pro players back in the day. “I saw a picture before, like ten years ago, when they [League of Legends] had their first world championship. It was in somebody’s basement with about 100 people there. Now they have tens of thousands of people watching them from a stadium.” Evidentially enough, even the first Fortnite World Cup amassed huge numbers in
viewership this year. With over 10 million views on YouTube, the Fortnite World Cup 2019 was arguably the biggest gaming event in Esports history so far. Because there was a prize pool of 3 million U.S. dollars, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing more young athletes competing in all types of games within Esports over the next decade. Coach Renuard believes so as well. “I think one thing that we’ll probably see in 10 to 20 years is students getting scholarships for Esports.”
With that being said, are you the next great gamer?
