Game on for esports
Mar. 12—It might not be the first thing that you think of with sports but it's gradually gaining recognition. It's not played with sticks or balls, but instead with a mouse and keyboard. It's called esports, and it's getting more recognition globally, nationally and locally.
Esports are essentially competitive video games. Games can vary in playing-style, and the manner in which they are competitive. Some can be more one-on-one, and others team-oriented. Colleges in recent years have been much more receptive to starting esports teams. Some grade schools have started teams as well.
The Barker Central School District launched its esports team at the beginning of the school year. High schoolers are able to join and the team meets several days a week for practice — or to play a game against another team over the internet. Currently Barker's team is only playing the team-based hero-shooter, "Overwatch," in the league known as the Electronic Gaming Federation. Next season's plan is to add the game "Rocket League," essentially soccer but with rocket propelled cars. It's widely popular in the esports community.
Math teacher Kyle Sosnowski has been coaching students on Barker's team over the course of the spring season. He took over for Chris Post, the technology teacher who was coaching over the fall season but had to step outside in order to coach track and field this spring.
"Some of these kids don't do some of the other sports, some go home and play video games anyway," said Sosnowski. "They get to come here and play a game that makes them be a part of a team, and work on skills of communication, and working together."
The league's organization is handled through the messaging app, Discord, where the teams determine who they'll be playing against, and when. Owen Donovan, the team captain, is hopeful that Barker will be able to come up this season even better than where they got in the last one.
"Last season we made it to the semifinals," he said. "So if we can do that again this season, it would be great."
Barker isn't entirely alone as far as schools with esport teams in Niagara County. The Wilson Central School District also has a team and Sosnowski has mentioned that interested individuals from Newfane have reached out to them on how to start a team of their own.
Local colleges in the county have also taken to esports lately. Niagara Community Community College created its own esports team in August. The NCCC ThunderWolves, sharing the sports moniker of the college's other teams, is a part of the SUNY League, which has teams from other colleges in the SUNY system competing against each other in various video games. Christian Salvati, the manager of the ThunderWolves esports team, said esports had an unofficial presence at NCCC beforehand but was then made official last semester with a great deal of positive reception.
"Here on campus with faculty, staff and particularly students, reception is pretty good," he said. "Esports and gaming is definitely one of the top interests of today's generation of students."
While the ThunderWolves haven't managed to excel in most games they are playing in the league, like "Overwatch," and "Rocket League," they currently hold the leading scores in the standard "Call of Duty" multiplayer game mode, as well as in the "Call of Duty: Warzone" game mode. The standard game mode involves two teams competing against each other, but Warzone involves multiple teams fighting for survival across a massive map. Warzone's game mode is often referred to as a "Battle Royale," which has been seen in other games like "Apex Legends" and "Fortnite."
Salvati said that the players preferred playing competitive battle royale games in "Call of Duty," as opposed to other games due to its more customizable lobbies during setup.
Just this week, the esports team from Niagara University left for Atlantic City, N.J. to compete in the winter championships of its league, in the Metro Athletic Athletic Conference. NU has had its own esports team since 2018. While competing in several different games, they are particularly skilled at the game "League of Legends," which is a multiplayer online battle arena game, or "MOBA." NU's League of Legends players had managed to beat Rider University during the quarterfinals, though were knocked out by Marist College during the semifinals Friday night.
Jacob Arrends, the president of NU's esports team, stated that because personal contact isn't necessary for esports, their seasons went undisturbed during the peak of the Covid pandemic.
"Unlike traditional sports such as basketball, and baseball, where they had to take their pause, we were able to continue playing," he said.
Arrends also mentioned that in March of 2020, when Covid first exploded in America, he and the other team members were traveling to Atlantic City for the MAAC championship, but had to go back when the in-person event was canceled. They still did manage to play later while in social isolation, and beyond that, things functioned normally.