How the Gilbert esports program has created a community of success in game and IRL
December 4, 2021 by Jacob Shannon, Arizona State University
Jacob Shannon is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover esports for AZPreps365.com.
When entering the Gilbert Esports Room on a playoff day, you’d anticipate the players to be silently glued to their screens, the only light in the room coming from their monitors as they sharpen their skills before their game begins. That’s far from the reality. The players are laughing and chatting amongst themselves, some are playing other game modes instead of the standard tournament-approved rulesets, others are bouncing from station to station, playing against all of their friends, and cracking jokes. They’re an inviting, friendly group of students who clearly want to compete and play the game they all love and have fun in while connecting with others who share the same fiery passion.
What was once considered a niche hobby, esports has now become a massive industry, with esports tournaments like Worlds 2021, a “League of Legends” tournament, peaking at 73 million viewers, dwarfing other sporting events in 2021 like the Daytona 500 (4.8 million), the College Football Playoff National Championship (18.7 million viewers), and Game 6 of the NBA Finals (35.9 million viewers). Prize pools for these matches can be in the millions, with 18-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf winning $3 million in the “Fortnite: World Cup Finals” tournament in 2019.
Many are taking notice of esports' exponential growth and are looking to capitalize on it, including high schools. Delane Parnell, CEO of PlayVS, the league that most high school esports across the United States are run through, revealed earlier this year that more than 8,600 high schools have registered for esports.
One of the first high schools in Gilbert to create an esports program was Gilbert High, thanks to math teacher and esports enthusiast Alyssa Beck-White. Beck-White not only established and has coached the program since the spring of 2019, she was also able to obtain full support from the school’s administration, which purchased a majority of the equipment, including the PCs, monitors, mice, and keyboards. There were still a few hiccups when starting the program up, Beck-White said, such as deciding which games to compete in.
When Gilbert made it official that they would have an esports team in the spring, their program didn’t take off initially due to only having a “Smash Brothers: Ultimate” team for students to compete in at the time. They ended up with only six players in the program, but when students got an email in the fall of 2019 revealing that the program would be adding a “League of Legends” team, followed by a “Rocket League” team being added later, the opportunity to play these games competitively for their school was an exciting prospect that several students jumped at almost immediately.
“When I got an email that there was a ‘League of Legends’ team, I wanted to join, but I was like well, they’re probably really good so I might not make the team,” Nick Sellers said, the support player on the “League of Legends” team. “But they weren’t very good, so I was able to help change that.”
While the program began immediately finding success the following year, that came to a halt in the spring of 2020, when the Gilbert esports program, along with all other teams at Gilbert High, had to be put on hold as COVID-19 shut down all schools and teams for the remainder of the year. While all sports came to a standstill, the esports program had one unique ability that other sports didn’t: being able to efficiently practice and compete remotely.
“We were able to play remotely almost immediately,” said Allyson Guzzo, the captain for the “League of Legends” team and the only girl currently in the program. “It was honestly really easy, we just got on Discord and did the exact same thing that we did here but from home.”
While removing the option of having in-person events and shifting all competition online didn’t present much of an issue for the “League of Legends” or “Rocket League” teams, it did for the “Smash Brothers: Ultimate” team. For fighting games like that one, certain combos and moves require incredibly precise timing, which can be heavily affected by lag from spotty internet. When competing against other schools, players have to hope their opponents have a high speed and stable internet connection, otherwise, that lag can heavily impact their performance.
“After COVID destroyed all chances of in-person matches, it’s been interesting,” said Alec Huish, a starter for the varsity “Smash: Ultimate” team. “All schools competing in esports were told to get LAN adapters (devices used to help improve internet connection for online games). You could tell a few schools either couldn’t afford them or just outright didn’t buy them, and the lag made it challenging for everyone involved.”
Now in the 2021 fall season, esports has taken off not only at Gilbert High but across all Gilbert Public Schools. With Gilbert Classical Academy’s announcement that they would start their own esports program in the spring of 2021, all high schools in the Gilbert Public Schools now have an esports program in some capacity.
“When we first started the program, there wasn’t that much involvement, but we’ve grown a lot over time,” Beck-White said. “It’s hard to list all the schools we compete against, but we compete against teams in Gilbert, Chandler, Higley, we even have schools down in Tucson and Prescott that are involved as well.”
Beck-White is now recognized by AIA as one of two Super Coaches in Arizona, making her an official resource for other budding high school esports programs to reach out to when starting their own esports teams. As for the program, it’s sitting at around 35 players, and has junior varsity and varsity rosters for their “Smash Brothers: Ultimate” and “Rocket League” teams, and a single varsity roster for their “League of Legends” team. Beck-White is considering expanding the program and adding a fourth team for the game “Splatoon 2”, but adding a new team is an expensive process.
“Creating a ‘Splatoon 2’ team would require at least four more Nintendo Switch consoles, since I don’t want to take away from my ‘Smash: Ultimate’ team,” Beck-White said, a process that would cost upward of $1,200.
But of all the impacts and success the program has had, Beck-White is particularly proud of the way esports has changed her players outside of the game. She said the program has not only given her players an opportunity to connect and be a part of a community of students who share the same interests but also taught players how to communicate and work together as a team.
“A lot of my students have really developed so much leadership just by being in my program,” Beck-White said. “ I have some of them in my math class, and they’re completely different people after spending time in the program and on a team.”
“The program has opened a lot of doors for me personally,” Sellers said. “It’s helped me find new friends, make connections with people, and further my experience with ‘League’ and esports as a whole.”
“I met all of my friends here and after becoming a captain for the team, I learned a lot about leadership, teamwork,” Guzzo said. “I’ve been in contact with colleges because of (the program), so it’s helped put my name out there a bit too.”
For Beck-White and her players, the esports program has become a sort of second family where they can bond, make friends, and compete in the video games they all love to play.
“It’s great to be able to meet new friends, especially people who like video games because it can be really hard to find people who are actually interested in it,” said Joshua Lemon, a player on the “League of Legends” team.
While the teams continue to play online against other schools, they're able to return to the Gilbert Esports Room to compete and practice together once again. While their “Rocket League” team is in a slump after losing all but one of their varsity players to graduation the previous year, their “League of Legends” team managed to make a deep playoff push before being eliminated in the quarter-finals, and their “Smash Brothers: Ultimate” team made it to the third round of the playoffs before being eliminated as well. Gilbert has their focus set on the spring season, where they aim to make another deep playoff push for all three of their teams.
