By Ian Jang, Y9
E-sports continue to grow in its popularity among our generations. In the 2017 Summit, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) declared that ‘Competitive e-sports’ could be considered as a sporting activity as it involves preparation and training with intensity just like any other traditional sport. The debate continues as to whether it should be classified as a sport, but the IOC and the sports industry cannot ignore e-sports any more. According to World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO Magazine on e-sports February 2018:
“E-sports offers great opportunities to attract and retain globally, especially among younger people. E-sports is an important way of reaching the younger generation and currently a vitally important market for media businesses, game producers and sports themselves.”
Due to the pandemic, the importance of virtual interaction worldwide is inevitable and this is how current new generations play. The first LGB e-sports competition was held on Friday, 6th of December. Around 40 students participated. The event was organized by LGB’s Juice Stuco in collaboration with the STEM centre. It was divided into three tournaments: Rocket League, Among Us and Fortnite Box Fights. As a result, Team Slurp were successful winners for Rocket League and they were awarded with 50CHF as a prize. Charlie Leroux showed his talent by winning the Fortnite matches and received a 25CHF prize from the organizers. Montague, a member of Juice Stuco, had the impression that, overall, Rocket League and Fornite were extremely successful. They hope to replace Among Us with a losers bracket for the Rocket League in the next tournament. The next tournament is scheduled for 19th of March 2021. They are thrilled to host the tournament again in collaboration with the STEM Centre.
There is some feedback from participants. Several people were not comfortable with inappropriate comments made by other students so perhaps this can be supervised and avoided in the next competition with a clear guideline, helpdesk support and if possible an adult supervisor. One suggestion was that at least one or two designated referees can be available to monitor throughout the tournaments and this can be counted as a part of CAS hours. Though there were hiccups, many participants enjoyed competing with each other in a safe environment on a school sponsored platform.
For me, though I was disappointed that I did not win, some of my friends and I counted the days leading up to the tournament and we had a great time playing together. Here are some interesting screenshots of our e-sports competition shared by Juice stuco chairman Victor. An awesome job to Juice Stuco and the STEM Centre! Your hard work is well appreciated!
If you are an e-sports maniac just like me, I recommend you experience interactive virtual experience with your whole family at FIFA eFootball Virtual Pitch e-sports tournaments, Virtual Reality museum and there are many more professional e-sports league such as Fortnite World Cup Competition that you can explore.
