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Texas K-12 Esports Teams Explode In Popularity (kxan.com) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the all-the-cool-kids-are-doing-it dept.
ItsJustAPseudonym writes: "The number of Texas school districts with esports programs has exploded this school year, growing from about 20 to more than 300 in the span of a few months," reports KXAN-TV, citing the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA). "'It's been in colleges for the last few years, and now it's starting to move down into the high schools and in the middle schools,' said TCEA's executive director, Lori Gracey. 'Teamwork, cooperation, planning, problem-solving, thinking quickly,' Gracey explained, 'all of those are things we want our kids to be able to do. And you can do that through video games.'"

And, for the collegiate perspective on this: "High school is a really, really exciting place for esports to take root," said Austin Espinoza, president of Longhorn Gaming at the University of Texas at Austin. "Eventually, that's just going to trickle upwards into the college world." Yes, yes, it's VERY exciting. I'm sure the effect on grades will be *nothing* but positive, right? On the other hand, esports provides an opportunity for college students to earn some money to pay down their college debts, so that's a potential upside. Will colleges start recruiting and offering scholarships to esports competitors?
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Texas K-12 Esports Teams Explode In Popularity More

Texas K-12 Esports Teams Explode In Popularity

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  • That's great news (Score:5, Interesting)

    by imidan ( 559239 ) on Friday February 07, 2020 @05:25AM (#59700850)

    Wow, so the editorial commentary on this summary is clearly pretty sarcastic and dismissive. I gotta say, the concepts of "Teamwork, cooperation, planning, problem-solving, thinking quickly" are positive things. The fact that kids may be learning these things in the context of video games does not mean that we should summarily dismiss them as useless or as confined to video game world.

    I've spent a lot of time in recent years playing cooperative board games with various friends groups, sometimes introducing them to people who have never played them. I've seen the ways that some friends' approaches to problem solving have shifted after we've done enough gaming: they've become more open to collaboration, more recognisant of the abilities that others can contribute, more willing to ask questions of others to try to understand their way of thinking. They become better collaborators.

    Teamwork is teamwork, and practicing teamwork skills is valuable. Most high school physical sports players aren't going to get scholarships or go pro. That's okay. They've learned something about working with a group as they've played. So do e-sports players (at least, those who play on a team).

    The goal of engaging in every activity is not necessarily to go pro. Sometimes, it's to have fun, to learn how to cooperate, to socialize with others, and to push yourself to succeed. Those are all good things, and we shouldn't shit on people for developing those goals in unexpected ways.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by BobCov ( 6498174 )
      Just what America needs to make fat kids get even fatter.

      • Just what America needs to make fat kids get even fatter.

        Hmmmmmm....I don't know. I don't watch them very much, but every time I happen to pop into a twitch stream showing a StarCraft or DOTA tournament, all those kids are pretty skinny.

        With your hands busy running a mouse and keyboard, you don't have time to eat (IMO - this is referring to PC Master Race gamers and not console scrubs ;) )

        • "Hmmmmmm....I don't know. I don't watch them very much, but every time I happen to pop into a twitch stream showing a StarCraft or DOTA tournament, all those kids are pretty skinny."

          If you play 20 hours a day you don't have time to eat.

    • I've spent a lot of time in recent years playing cooperative board games with various friends groups, sometimes introducing them to people who have never played them. I've seen the ways that some friends' approaches to problem solving have shifted after we've done enough gaming: they've become more open to collaboration, more recognisant of the abilities that others can contribute, more willing to ask questions of others to try to understand their way of thinking.

      And then there's that one guy who just hides behind a bookshelf near the front door... spawn-camping.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jzanu ( 668651 )
      Ignoring fitness for the sake of what is already covered by every other program is shortsighted. Sure skill-building, but this is not physical education or a tool for fitness. Those are every bit and arguably even crucial for children to learn early to ensure their lifelong health. Fitness is closely tied to military preparedness, and arguable while the apparent nature of war that has changed allowing fitness standards to lag but there are still major requirements for physical activity in normal activity as

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megol ( 3135005 )

        What makes you assume the program doesn't include fitness?

      • Ignoring fitness for the sake of what is already covered by every other program is shortsighted. Sure skill-building, but this is not physical education or a tool for fitness. Those are every bit and arguably even crucial for children to learn early to ensure their lifelong health. Fitness is closely tied to military preparedness, and arguable while the apparent nature of war that has changed allowing fitness standards to lag but there are still major requirements for physical activity in normal activity as well as normal life.

        I don't know about overall fitness, but it sure helps hand-eye coordination. I watch streamers on Twitch & FB playing Apex Legends click foreheads across the map and I don't even SEE what they are shooting at. But the hitmarkers appear.

        That is why I suck so bad at Battlefield 4. I love the gameplay, but it takes my old brain a second or two to figure out if I should shoot or not. By that time, the little punk on the other end has already head-shotted me.... :(

      • Fitness and sports are very loosely related at best. I do not believe eSports are taking the place of PE down here, i haven't seen that anyway. It's just taking some of the kids who aren't playing football after school.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aereus ( 1042228 )

      A number of those games involve inundating yourself in predatory gambling atmospheres to play and low skill-ceilings. There are plenty of better things for promoting teamwork et al. And that is the core problem here: The games that are best at teaching those skills aren't the ones popular in esports circles. Garbage like Fortnite and Overwatch with all their advertising behind it are what you're going to see.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Expanding in direct proportion to waistlines and inverse proportion to job prospects.
      • At least it stirs up some social interaction though.

        Whether the epidemic of depression and anxiety is due to lack of exercise and exposure to sunlight vs impoverished social interaction is the question I guess. Surely both to some degree.

    • Yeah, teamwork is a good skill, but video games are not something a school should be spending money on. There are plenty of scholastically appropriate ways to build teamwork, and I haven't even gotten to the cost of competition-grade hardware.

      • Yeah, teamwork is a good skill, but video games are not something a school should be spending money on.

        If we didn't already have a culture of school sports, couldn't you say the same thing if somebody tried to introduce football? In fact, name one criticism of school esports that you couldn't say the exact same - if not worse - about physical sports?

        I'll give you the first: Real sports improve physical conditioning. For the people who are already in good-enough shape to participate.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Football is not something a school should be spending money on, but in Texas high school football approaches the fanaticism of a religion. When a small town spends multi-millions of dollars on a frelling high school stadium I wouldn't negate the non-jocks the pittance their activity might cost.

    • These kids will be the same self-entitled jocks the sportsball players are, with same peer and teacher/trainer pressures, dancing on the same edge of nervous breakdown in fear of failure - only they'll be on different drugs and they'll be training to solve all their problems by shooting them.

      But hey... at least we'll settle both the gun debate and the violence in video games debate with one blow.

      • I dont think video games makes someone a mass shooter, but I do believe the graphic detail and realism makes it easier for them to carry it out. Having been in combat, there is some desensitization required to shoot at someone. That doesnt just immediately happen. The one thing that makes it possible to even move on to the second target in combat is the fact that you are being shot at. Its either them or you. Detailed games like call of duty fast-track you past the shock and trauma of seeing the effects of

    • A good board game is about 180 degrees away from an esports video game, on the opposite side of the planet.

      Reading and understanding complex rules, teaching them to other players, working with your opponents up close in person, and figuring out optimal scoring or win strategies, compared to what, a twitchy action game... last hits... playing solo "together".

      The last time I played a multiplayer video game with my whole team physically present, it never occurred to me that would later be considered an educati

      • I think the part that people are overlooking is the effect of too much screen time. Talk to some optometrist and ophthalmologist about the uptick in vision problems within the last 10 years. There is a lot of eye problems that did not used to exist before the proliferation of smartphones. Not only are there more cases of eye related problems, but the ages that are coming across these problems is getting younger and younger. Adding more screen time just doesnt make sense to me. I would be fine if they were s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waveclaw ( 43274 )

      Excepting some games like beat saber, video gaming is a passive sport. To keep top performance these teams will require teaching their gamers to learn the value of taking frequent breaks and physical training. Yes, competitive video gamers have to hit the gym, too. It's really hard to hit those Actions-Per-Minute numbers if you keep sliding into a diabetic coma.

      eSports has the potential to publicize healthy ways to handling gaming as a hobby or interest. And that applies to desk work in general. Ame

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Nobody ever does anything in education without high-falutin' sounding goals.

      High school football is justified with the exact same claims. It may even be possible to pursue those goals through football. But it doesn't follow that football is the most rational place for a school district to put its money.

      There's a high school in Texas that built a 70 million dollar, 12,000 seat football stadium. It's obviously in a well-to-do town, and the high school isn't bad.... Going by the numbers and rankings, it's m

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday February 07, 2020 @06:15AM (#59700886)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • No, same ol same ol. Football is alive and well, cheerleading suffered a hit when they had to allow the fat girls in after they were literally killing each other over a place on the team, but it is otherwise proceeding. We just have new things that can be monetized.

      Everything in Texas schools that receives any attention or funding must be about some form of competition. Give them something to make a sport of, and they'll cling to it like white on rice. The problem is the many things that aren't getting any

    • The prefix "e" and "ex" entered english language from latin (where is means "away from" or "via") with a revised meaning of "not" or "opposed" or "formerly". So we have eccentric for off center, expatriot for countrymen abroad.

      eSports fits in nicely as an abstraction of sports that isn't a sport.

  • VGHS (Score:3)

    by sad_ ( 7868 ) on Friday February 07, 2020 @06:37AM (#59700906) Homepage

    VGHS is a documentairy now?

  • The problem starts with the "esports" designation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Friday February 07, 2020 @06:58AM (#59700934) Homepage

    It should be "pro video games" or "egames" etc, not "esports", which sort of makes it comparable or even a substitute for sports.
    When I was a kid, I was very geeky, but I, and my parents, recognized that I needed physical exercise to be healthy, so there was the agreement that my NES would be limited (mainly weekends) and they would sign me up to any sports/athletics/training/physical/etc things I wanted, set up a small bball court to play with my friends etc.
    For many kids now there seems to be no limit, as families allow them to spend their entire free time on a monitor and this "eSports" thing just gives more justification. No, you are not an "athlete" if you are great at "eSports", and if that's the only thing you do, your body will suffer.

  • If the schools have official programs, and members are considered Student-Athletes, they will not be allowed to "earn some money" with it. Especially if scholarships and such are involved, which is currently not the case.

  • they can play games with guns in them in school?

  • Those who can't, play.
    Those who can't play, spectate.

    I'm happy if they're happy.
    But I can't help but feel the pain of wasted potential.

    If those e-sports games would at least train them in someting that improves the world and their lives in reality.

    As in: Life still being better, if you switch the thing off.

    (Note: I design games too. I'm certainly not opposed to playing games. But because I know the theory, I know their natural purpose is training for real life. You're supposed to be done with them as a ritu

    • Bro, do you even CrossFit?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Those who can't, play.
      Those who can't play, spectate.

      I'm happy if they're happy.
      But I can't help but feel the pain of wasted potential.

      If those e-sports games would at least train them in someting that improves the world and their lives in reality.

      As in: Life still being better, if you switch the thing off.

      (Note: I design games too. I'm certainly not opposed to playing games. But because I know the theory, I know their natural purpose is training for real life. You're supposed to be done with them as a ritual of becoming an adult. Not use them as
      substitute for a failing life.)

      Video games are how I relax and burn off steam. I guess I could be a "well adjusted adult" and spend a couple hours at the bar every Friday/Saturday night, or binge drinking cheap beer at a tailgate for a football game. But that's just not my thing. On Sunday afternoon my wife naps, I get on my computer and blow shit up.

      Also, I was a multisport athlete starting in the 5th grade all the way up until my senior year of high school when I just played football, then played 4 years of football in college (and

  • My kids will watch nerds vs jocks storylines in movies and cartoons, eventually, and wonder what that was about. This is fantastic news.

  • Yes, yes, it's VERY exciting. I'm sure the effect on grades will be *nothing* but positive, right?

    I'm sure the effects on their academics will be every bit as positive as the effects of joining the football squad would be.

    • My daughters academics went up participating in NASP. Something about an hour of intense focus in practice before school really helps throughout the rest of the day. Im sure physical activities are probably equally rewarding for engaging kids during class time

      • All of which could also be said about intense focus on a video game, which is my point. You can't really argue about how video games detract from students' academics and then turn around and argue about how atheletics contribute to students' academics.

  • OK, so that blurb makes no sense:

    "It's been in colleges for the last few years, and now it's starting to move down into the high schools and in the middle schools,' said TCEA's executive director, Lori Gracey.

    Austin Espinoza, president of Longhorn Gaming at the University of Texas at Austin. "Eventually, that's just going to trickle upwards into the college world."

    So which is it?

    The answer is, of course, neither. It's been well documented that the under-20 crowd isn't interested in professional sports the

  • Texas K-12 Esports Teams Explode In Popularity

    ...Shortly Before Texas K-12 Esports Students Explode in Mr. Creosote Style.

  • Yes. I know. Generation X was the last cool generation. You can stop doing such stupid shit. You made your point.

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