West Hartford’s Hall High School recently received a donation of computers for the school’s esports team.

By Ted Glanzer

Most any sports team will acknowledge a home field/court/turf advantage.

The same, presumably, holds true for esports.

And the Hall High School esports club got its home field, so to speak, on May 15 when about a dozen of its 18 members helped assemble six computers that were installed in the school’s graphics lab.

The computers were donated by the High School Esports League in partnership with Intel, Asus, and the National Guard, according to Hall High teacher Sebastian Fortuna, the esports club’s head coach.

With the growing phenomenon of esports, in which some 400 million people participate, gamers participate in one of three games: Rocket League (think a video game of playing soccer with a remote-control car), League of Legends (a five-versus-five battle game), and Smash Brothers Ultimate (a cartoon-like fighting game), typically using either a gaming system like Xbox or PlayStation, or via a personal computer.

In its first year, Hall High esports participants each played from their own homes on their own laptops or gaming systems, Fortuna said.

“Some kids were playing on a $300 laptop that barely ran the game and we had some kids playing on very high-end stuff,” Fortuna said. “What’s nice about this lab is we’re going to have one central location. It’s an even playing field for every one of our players. We’re truly going to bring equity to esports.”

Opponents could have been anyone from all over the U.S.

The new computers will enable Hall High’s gamers to compete together under one roof next year, just as the pandemic is – hopefully – ending, as well as help grow the program to beyond gaming.

“We’re going to hope get everything going next year,” Fortuna said. “We not only want to get gamers to join and help out, but we also want to get content creation students who can help us make videos, students who can help us get the word out and be our social media manager. It’s really about making a whole community of not just gamers, but content creators.”

The new computers will be capable of streaming on Twitch or YouTube, two popular gaming platforms, to enable fellow students and parents to watch.

Connecticut, through the CIAC, is one of the first states to sanction esports, and there are at least 14 high schools in the state that take part in them, including Xavier High in Middletown, Manchester High, and the Master’s School in Simsbury.

Fortuna said esports is the ultimate inclusive activity that allows students who otherwise might not be a part of another sports team to join a competitive club.

“A student doesn’t have to be a 6-3 linebacker, he or she doesn’t have to be lightning fast, he or she doesn’t have to have a physical advantage over anyone else,” Fortuna said. “Anybody can pick up a controller and play. It doesn’t matter your race, size, gender, anything. … Every kid – no matter what background you come from – everyone gets to participate, everyone gets to play, it’s truly inclusive and equitable.”

Right off the bat, Fortuna saw the benefits of kids joining the club this year.

“I saw GPAs immediately skyrocket,” he said. “I have a strict grading policy. For me it was more of, if you have a D or an F you have to bring that up. That was my biggest focus this year. You are a student-athlete. Even though you don’t have a field or a court, you are still a student-athlete and the student comes first.”

Nehemiah Odior, a representative from High School Esports who was on-site helping the students build the computers, said the benefits of esports can’t be overstated.

“A majority of the kids who join into [esports] clubs or programs we offer, they aren’t in any other high school clubs at all,” Odior said. “They just go to school and go home. This gives them a chance to have that school pride and come to school and stay after school and make friends and have a reason to say, ‘I’m proud of the school I went to.’ It also gives them an eye-opening into avenues into things they haven’t done before. … The games they’re playing teaches about decision making, how to run a system, how to be a good teammate, how to improve self as an individual. There’s a lot goes into it.”

All of which may be well and good, but Hall High junior David Do, a captain of the club, said he was just having fun and enjoying meeting new people.

“I love playing with friends after school we have a lot of fun,” he said.  “I definitely met a bunch of new people around school I don’t think I would have met.”

Fortuna, for his part, says he wants to continue to build the program at Hall High.

“We want to make sure it grows into something so much bigger,” he said, adding what he’d really love to see is team jerseys with the school colors. “That gives the kids a sense of belonging. With the jerseys, it would say, ‘You belong to Hall’s exports team. You truly part of this team and the community. You are wearing that blue and white you wouldn’t otherwise.’”

Fortuna went a step further, praising his charges for showing up on May 15 to construct the gaming lab.

“I’m so excited and proud of the kids,” he said. “It’s a social event. The kids are here, in school, doing an educational event on a Saturday. That tells me the drive and purpose they have and how excited they are.”

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