More middle and high schools are embracing organized Esports programs. As of January 2020, 17 states have sanctioned academic esports programs, according to an interactive map on the PlayVS website.

PlayVS (pronounced “Play Versus”) is an esports startup that makes it easy for schools to create district and statewide esports league play. PlayVS oversees the infrastructure, including league organization, scheduling, maintaining leaderboards, and more. The company has a website that updates with real-time stats from each high school’s match.

“We automate the heavy lifting so teachers can fully focus on the kids, ensuring that they stay safe, have fun, and have everything they need to be successful,” Delane Parnell, CEO and founder of PlayVS, said in a release.

“Esports is about more than just playing games – it can be used to help students grow their STEM interests and develop valuable life skills, and since there are more high school gamers than athletes, it’s about time we foster this pastime in an educational setting.”

PlayVS has an official partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). The NFHS is basically the NCAA for high school sports. The organization has experience managing activities (such as building out the districts and conferences, writing league rules, organizing state playoff tournaments, hiring and training referees, etc.) for more than 90 percent of U.S. schools.

In addition to the 17 states affiliated with PlayVS, 10 more states hold statewide esports competitions. While their states do not officially sanction these events, that still means the total number of states with organized esports programs and tournaments is more than a fourth of the country. An amount that is only going to grow. Currently, several other states are debating how to incorporate esports into their school systems. For example, in Texas, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) is actively discussing adding esports as a UIL sanctioned sport.

The UIL creates the rules and manages almost all athletic, musical, theatrical, academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in Texas. According to a Dallas Morning News article, “UIL Deputy Director Jamey Harrison acknowledged it’s a matter of when, not if, esports becomes sanctioned.”

There are a few reasons for the sudden increase in sponsored esports programs at secondary schools. One of the biggest is that it was preceded by a sudden surge in sponsored esports at colleges and universities. Currently, 175 colleges and universities are members of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and provide officially recognized varsity esports programs. These schools also offer more than $17 million in esports scholarships for students (more than a threefold increase since 2015), according to NACE. An additional 314 colleges have active Tespa chapters, which are officially recognized student esports clubs.

An NBC News story reported on a nascent esports team at Howell Central High School in St. Charles, Missouri. The club was founded by a guidance counselor, Kris Miller, after touring Columbia College of Missouri with a group of students. One of the stops was the college’s esports facility known as the Game Hut. That was when Miller discovered that several Missouri colleges were looking for esports recruits and provided scholarships as an incentive.

“I thought we’d be negligent if we didn’t start an esports team at the high school,” Miller said to NBC News. “If colleges are offering scholarships, our kids should be competing for them.”

It took one week for Miller to gather enough students to form a club. He needed 10 students and got 20 — 14 boys and six girls. A year later, six of the team’s players were offered nearly $400,000 combined in scholarships to play esports in college.

Another reason secondary school esports programs are taking off is due to the significant growth of the popularity of esports. According to the research firm Newzoo, the esports industry is projected to be a $1.5 billion industry in 2020 and will reach $1.8 billion by 2022. Live esports events are attracting record crowds. In February 2019, 174,000 people attended two weekends of esports events in Katowice, Poland. The record-breaking in-person attendance was augmented with 232 million at-home viewers. The event was broadcast in 21 languages to both linear and digital worldwide platforms.

Esports tournaments and events routinely attract thousands of in-person spectators and millions of online observers. According to Ovum’s Esports Revenue Forecast: 2018–23, esports is the fastest-growing spectator sport in the country with an audience that is expected to reach nearly 650 million people by 2022.

A third reason for the rise of esports’ popularity in secondary school is that the competitions are often seen as an equalizer. Students who have not had an opportunity to compete for their school before, now can step onto the big stage. There’s no need to separate esports events by gender or physical ability. If a student can skillfully play a video game, they can qualify for their school’s esports team.

PlayVS breaks the school year into two four-month seasons. The first begins in October and runs through January; the second spans February through May. Each season is divided into two weeks of preseason, a seven-week regular season, followed by the playoffs. A champion is awarded at the end of each season. The cost to participate is $64 per student per season, which PlayVS claims is significantly less than most traditional sports.

Teams go through the PlayVS website to see their schedule and log on for their games. PlayVS provides best practices, minimum recommended hardware specifications, training, vendor lists to procure hardware, and other forms of support to schools.

Currently, NFHS and PlayVS offer three esports games:

• Rocket League – it’s soccer, but with cars; teams consist of five players
• League of Legends – a team-based, fast-paced, high-level strategy game, and one of the world’s most popular video games; teams consist of three players
• SMITE – a combat game featuring characters from ancient mythology; teams consist of five players

Fans of esports may have noticed that some popular games are missing from that list. Parnell has been very clear that one genre will not be part of the PlayVS platform.

“We’re doing no shooting games: no third-person, not first-person shooting, no battle royale, because the contents of the games are not friendly in a high school environment,” said Parnell. “We’re sensitive to all of the issues around violence in schools, and we do not want to promote that for the foreseeable future.”

A significant hurdle that scholastic esports needs to overcome is the preexisting prejudices that some parents and educators may have against video games.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that what kids get out of esports looks like more traditional teams,” Andy Frushour, Director of Brand Management for the Michigan Athletics Association, said to NBS News. “They’re wearing uniforms. They’re representing their school. They’re practicing every day. But some people get caught up on, ‘Is this athletics?’ They’ve been preaching, ‘Get out and run around,’ and then they see these games that don’t look like the ones they grew up playing. With something so new, for an association like ours to move forward takes time.”

However, with popularity – and scholarship money – comes increased acceptance. Esports in secondary schools provide students with all of the benefits of traditional sports – camaraderie, inclusiveness, and sportsmanship – and the realization that video games can play a meaningful role in a student’s life.

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