Ecole Kingston East starts eSports Team

For this game of soccer, the players at Kingston East Elementary trade their cleats for controllers.

Electronic sports, or eSports, is a form of competition using video games. With the industry experiencing a boom over the past decade, a lot of schools have started developing their own teams.

“So I looked into what we could do here, at our school, and just browsing through Twitter, a lot of other teachers have apparently been doing the same thing,” said Evan Hulse, a faculty member and the creator of the team.

Once Hulse got the ball rolling, he said the program was showered with support from both the parents and faculty.

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“I think they are also excited to see how into it the kids are. Our first practice, we had probably six or seven teachers drop in just to see what’s going on.”

A popular game in eSports is rocket league, which is a cross between soccer and racing.

“I’ve heard of the game before, but then my mom’s like, ‘Hey, let’s try it.’ So then that’s how I started playing rocket league,” said 10-year-old team member Sofia Elizabeth Brown.

Professional players in these leagues make millions of dollars, but these youngsters pick up controllers mostly for fun.

Liam Merchant, 10, said he tries to emulate the style of one of his heroes, Justin Morales.

“I sometimes try to score a 0-second goal like what he did. It was very famous his 0-second goal.”

The Kingston team at Kingston East Elementary hopes to build on its spring success and grow the eSports team when school returns in the fall.