Orange County High School Esports League Combines Education, Gaming
Esports are coming to colleges around the country with the creation of varsity programs and unofficial leagues. One of the collegiate leaders in esports is UC Irvine. It was one of the first colleges to have a varsity program and built the first esports arena on a college campus. UC Irvine’s influence in esports has trickled down to local high schools in Southern California with the formation of the Orange County High School Esports League.
Constance Steinkuehler, a professor at UC Irvine, has been helping get the OC Esports League up and running. “(At UC Irvine) we have seen lots of added engagement with students,” she said. “There isn’t a lot of academic research on esports yet but we have seen a positive effect on student performance and retention.”
The funding for the league has come largely from the Samueli Foundation. Created by Henry Samueli, one of the foundation’s goals is to “promote scholastic, technical, and creative exploration and achievement.” Gerald Solomon is the Executive Director for the foundation and said that when he visited UC Irvine, he was immediately struck with ways that esports could promote the foundation’s mission.
“At UC Irvine I was enthralled by the esports program,” Solomon said. “Esports is so technologically based that there is an incredible opportunity to embed learning in esports.”
In addition, esports provide a level playing field and allow kids who aren’t the strongest or the fastest to compete.
“Part of their core belief system is that everyone irrespective of gender or ethnicity has a right to be able to thrive. (Esports) provide an opportunity for kids to be able to do that,” Solomon continued.
There are 25 high schools that are in the league and many have multiple teams. One of the schools with two teams is the Samueli Academy, a public charter high school where Anthony Saba serves as the Head of School. According to him, the response from esports has been overwhelmingly positive.
“In 18 years as an educator there are always kids who are hard to reach,” Saba said. “They don’t buy into the school environment. In this school of 500 when I announced the creation of an esports club, I had 60 kids who were interested. That’s more than any sport, any activity.”
This was true for many schools across the league. Esports reached kids who previously were hard to motivate.
“These are not kids who are involved with any other facet of our campus. They used to go home and shut the door and game,” Saba continued. “Now they have academic responsibility and they are buying into the school culture. We have created a great environment to attract and retain kids who normally were the first ones out the doors at the end of the day.”
It’s no surprise that the students jumped on esports quickly. What is more surprising is the positive response from parents.
“Feedback from parents has been great. They trust us to create a healthy framework and they love that there is accountability to grades,” Saba said.
Like most other extracurricular activities and teams, playing in the esports league comes with a mandatory grade point average (GPA) to stay eligible. The league mandates a C-average (2.0 GPA) but some schools like El Dorado High School have increased that to a solid 2.5. David Block, a teacher at El Dorado and the faculty advisor for their esports team, said at least one of his students has worked hard to get his GPA up to be eligible for competitions.
“We had 55 kids who joined immediately even though we have a higher GPA requirement than most clubs,” Block said.
Playing esports with others in the same room is a different experience than playing online. Insults that are easy to hurl at an opposing username become more impactful when the opponent is sitting across the table.
“It throws a different spin on how they play,” Block continued. “You can’t be faceless or anonymous when playing with a team.”
The VP of the club, Matt Arnett, echoed those sentiments.
“It’s a fun atmosphere for everyone,” he said. “It’s more tilting (frustrating) to play by yourself online. In an environment like this people are more understanding, you get more hyped up, and it’s more fun.”
Across all levels of education, people are working to create a good framework for esports in academia.
Researchers like Dr. Steinkuehler at UC Irvine are exploring the academic benefits of esports. Curriculum curators at high schools like Saba at the Samueli Academy are figuring out how to inject esports into daily learning. Solomon and The Samueli Foundation are providing kids across the county an opportunity to be involved with esports.
Parents of the students love the added engagement with the school and having someone else stay up on their kids’ grades. And for the students? They are coming out to esports programs in droves and preparing for the playoffs that will be held in April.
