Esports Club Gets Competitive & Finds a Home at Sage Hill
Esports Club Gets Competitive & Finds a Home at Sage Hill
One of Sage Hill’s 80+ clubs is giving students a chance to hone their skills in a fast-growing competitive environment that could even earn them college scholarships. It’s the Esports Club.
Founded in the fall of 2018 by alumnus Luca White-Matthews (‘19), the club has evolved into a full-blown competitive team. This year the team competed in the NASEF (North America Scholastic Esports Federation). The Sage Hill club plays teams from California as they are seeded in one of the two West Coast brackets.
The fall season just ended, and the Esports Club snagged a spot in the playoffs. They won the first match but unfortunately had to forfeit the second one, said Joshua Black, club advisor and technology specialist at Sage Hill.
Leading up to the playoffs, the group competed in about six matches, winning three of them. The game they played in the fall was Overwatch, Black said. The winter season, which will start in late January/early February, will focus on the game League of Legends.
In January, there are plans to open up a room specifically for esports gaming in the lower Johnson Family Library.
“Right now, the students have been playing at home because we didn’t have a space on campus, but once we have all the systems in place they will be practicing and playing on campus,” Black said.
With the help of a donor, the School will be receiving gaming peripherals (keyboards, mice, chairs) and, most generously, 10 desktop gaming computers, said Nikki Imai, the director of library and technology. Our partnership with NASEF has allowed the School to receive several nice donated headsets as well, she said.
Currently, the Esports Club meet at least once a month, but once their gaming space is ready the plan is to meet a couple times a week. In large part, these meetings serve to talk about strategy before their matches, Black said.
Overwatch matches are best two out of three and each game lasts about 15 to 30 minutes. There are set goals and teams have to get so many capture points to win the game, Black said. The League of Legends matches will last a little longer as each game can take up to 45 minutes to an hour.
Participation in NASEF is free for students. The team, which is currently all male, is actively seeking female gamers to add to the group, Black said.
Popularity of esports has skyrocketed in recent years. Big competitions are held in arenas, where thousands of fans can watch as professional gamers compete for big bucks. An increasing number of colleges are now even offering esports scholarships.
CIF is also getting in on the competition with their league, CIF Esports Initiative. Sage Hill may participate in that league in the future, Black said.
“Due to the computational, technological, and strategic nature of esports, students who engage in esports are much more likely to pursue STEM fields,” according to CIF Esports Initiative.
One of the biggest skills students get out of esports is teamwork, Black said.
“It is good exercise for your hand-eye coordination, but mainly it’s the teamwork and it can help prepare you for the future [working with others],” he said. “I’ve been playing games all my life, and when I heard that they wanted to start this club I wanted to volunteer and help them out with it.”
Students interested in participating in the Esports Club should reach out to Black at blackj@sagehillschool.org.
Students interested in participating in the Esports Club should reach out to Black at blackj@sagehillschool.org.
Sage Hill School
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.