Mid-Ohio ESC opens esports lab for high school students
Esports, or competitive multiplayer video gaming, has been on the rise for years and now it's starting to enter in the space of high schools.
In February, the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center's board of governors discussed the possibility of using funding to explore more learning opportunities for students and esports was one of the talking points.
On Thursday, the Mid-Ohio ESC held its first esports event, with students from Mansfield Senior and the F.I.R.S.T. School participating. The high school esports tournament featured the game Super Smash Brothers and took place in a lab that was well-suited for all the electronic action.
The Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center provides specialized academic and support services to 11 school districts andmore than 18,000 students in Crawford, Richland and Morrow counties. Client districts receive services from curriculum,gifted and special education consultants, speech pathologists, psychologists, special education teachers,occupational therapists and physical therapists.
Esports offers students a different means to compete
"It's a different outlet for high school kids. Gives them a different means to compete in a game," said Jake Molyet, an esports consultant. "Very similar to traditional sports but it's electronics. It's a way to engage kids, plus video games are popular. It's a growing field. Ohio in general, have esports at the state level and there are several schools that compete against each other in leagues and tournaments."
"We feel esports is a great avenue to get students connected in a different way," said Mark Burke, executive director of achievement and leadership at Mid-Ohio ESC. "There are traditional sports like football, basketball, softball, track and others. There are a portion of kids who aren't athletes and don't want to be athletes. Esports is a way they can engage in that but in a different way. We hear it's going to be in Ohio High School Athletic Association soon. Kids might be filling a passion that they didn't even know was there with gaming."
Molyet said that middle schools, along with some high schools, are starting to offer esports programs. It's also used as a reward system in PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) and for students who exhibit quality behavior and good academics.
Look across the landscape and many colleges are offering scholarships in esports and major universities in the state have their own esports programs.
Mid-Ohio ESC wants to stay in forefront of esports
"One of the main things with Mid-Ohio is that they know esports is growing across the state but across the platform," said Molyet. "We're making sure we stay in the forefront of it and we want to make sure we're engaging kids and giving them the best opportunity to succeed."
Burke said that other schools in Richland County are starting slowly to get involved in the nature of esports at the high school level. "We see other schools now buying equipment and we're really seeing this take off so we're hoping to do some of these small events where schools get comfortable with what the games are, the equipment and what it looks like," he said. "We want to help grow our region but also be a major regional and state site for some major tournaments down the line."
Burke says he envisions the Mid-Ohio ESC as a viable location to hold future big tournaments and a regional site, as well as encouraging schools in the area to set up their own leagues. That way they can become more familiar with esports altogether.
"We like to hold more tournaments next year but this is more of a growing year," said Burke. "We want other schools to start their own invitationals and we would host it. We do want to host independent tournaments and invite not only our client districts but any school that would want to come from Ohio. We want to encourage it, get the word out and help schools put their teams together."
jsimpson@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Students compete in video games at Mid-Ohio ESC's new lab
