Ready up!: SHS to start esports competitions

Feb. 16—Somerset High School is leveling up, as it has been given a green light to press start — on a new esports team.

Esports — or electronic sports — pits gamers against each other in a battle of wisdom, reflexes and skill.

It's one of the largest growing types of competition in the world, with SHS's Brian Blankenship noting that there are already 88 Kentucky high school teams in existence.

And it doesn't just stop on the high school level. Blankenship said that here were 205 colleges and universities throughout the United States which have esports teams, including Western Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky University, University of the Cumberlands and Campbellsville University.

Plus, it's one of the most economical sports for schools. The biggest expense would be in having the computers, and Blankenship said that SHS just happens to have those already thanks to the engineering program.

"We also have plenty of students who have next-gen consoles — PS5s Xboxs, Switches — to be able to run games," he said.

After that, there's not a lot of extras needed. "It's not as complicated as others sports, because you don't have to worry about field maintenance, referees, or anything that is difficult to organize," he said.

Blankenship, already known to many as the headmaster of SHS's Carnegie Academy, will be the team's coach. The title and position was approved at a recent Somerset Independent Board of Education meeting.

In recommending the program, Superintendent Kyle Lively said esports would fit in well with the other teams the district recently created, such as wrestling, trap shooting and bass fishing.

It's about trying to find a niche for every student to be successful in, Lively said.

"That success hopefully snowballs into confidence, which leads to being successful after graduation and in life," he said.

Blankenship said he had already spoken with students from the Nerdmageddon Club who expressed an interest in participating.

He had 42 students interested in taking part, and that's before opening it up to the rest of the school, he said.

To participate, students would need to have a 2.5 grade point average.

Blankenship reminded that there is a heavy participation in esports in college.

"Most of these students are majoring in computer engineering and computer science — the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. So it's not an add-on. It's something they do. It's part of their lifestyle," Blankenship said.

He said he was in the process of setting up a meeting with students. He doesn't have an exact timeline yet, but he did say that if all went well, the team could be practicing — and possibly even competing — by next week.

All the games the students will be competing in are age-appropriate and rated T (Teen, or suitable for those 13 and younger).

Those games are League of Legends, Rocket League, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 and Madden NFL 23.

The games are run through a platform called PlayVS, which takes care of all the coordination, match set-up and login requirements. That means players can log in from anywhere — either at school or in the comfort of their own homes.

"It's basically software where the students can sign into it, and that's where we actually play our matches. It doesn't even require us to travel," Blankenship said.

That was a relief to him, because when he first started looking into the idea of starting an esports team, he was concerned that the administration wouldn't like to fund the cost of travel for weekly competitions.

"We figured out that wouldn't be an issue unless you make it to the state finals. But I'm sure the board would not have a problem (letting us travel) if we made it to the state finals," Blankenship laughed.

The PlayVS platform also ensures all students are competing on the same level in terms of technology, Blankenship said.

"I was really worried about other schools having modded hardware or software, but since we're going through PlayVS, they get data on things like refresh rate, so they would know if anything's modded."

Competitions take place Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with one of the five games played on Tuesdays, another game only played on Wednesdays, and the other three titles played on Thursdays.

While it's easy average folks to find similar competitions to watch online, such as through Twitch or YouTube streaming, Blankenship said the decision has been made not to make the SHS team's competitions viewable to the public.

"We can run a Twitch account, but really with FURPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and everything else, we're just not going to do anything like that. We're not going to risk anything," he said, reminding that some of the team members could choose to compete from their own homes or bedrooms, and Blankenship didn't want the potential for personal information about the students getting out.

He did say that another advantage to the PlayVS system was the company ensured him that no hacking could be done to access students' webcams or other information.

Carla Slavey can be reached at cslavey@somerset-kentucky.com