Tipton High School’s Gaming Lab

Professional esports are in the news constantly, with organization after organization raising millions of dollars in funding and viewership records are broken every year. Esports are growing exponentially, but not all of the massive growth has been at the professional level — its popularity has prompted high schools around the country to start their own gaming and esports clubs.

These clubs range from simple after-school meetups to organized teams that compete in nationwide high school esports leagues, but they all offer students a chance to socialize with peers who share their favorite pastime in a safe, school-sanctioned setting. It’s no secret that students who are more involved perform better in their classes, and these clubs allow students who might not be interested in any other extracurriculars to get involved with their school community.

To gain an insider’s perspective of the benefits high school gaming clubs have to offer, I spoke to John “GamerTeach” Robertson. Robertson is a teacher and the director of esports at Tipton High School in Tipton, Indiana, and believes that gaming can be a positive part of every student’s life.

Tipton students compete competitively with other high schools in Overwatch, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, and League of Legends, though Robertson emphasises that students interested in playing casually or competitively are encouraged to join the gaming club:

“You don’t have to be insanely good to just come play.”

Thanks to a $35,000 grant from the Tipton County Foundation, Robertson’s students are able to gather in an incredible gaming lab where students learn and improve upon their “teamwork, communication, planning, executing the plan, adapting when it fails, and dealing with stress.” Students on these esports teams will learn the same lessons about teamwork and competition as students on more traditional sports teams, but in an environment that’s much more accessible to the average student.

Additionally, Robertson has found that students from all backgrounds can find common ground with other students with gaming. “One of the biggest benefits is that we’re getting interaction of students from a variety of backgrounds and across friend groups. People who might not normally have socialized together are realizing that they have things in common with gaming. We’ve worked to make our club very inclusive, so guys and girls are competing together, and people of all social backgrounds.”

Esports at the collegiate level are growing rapidly as well, with prize pools climbing higher every year. Tespa, the leading Collegiate Esports organization, claims that over $3 million in scholarships have been awarded to students over the past decade, and hundreds of universities around the country have opened chapters to organize their teams.

With esports on the rise at every level, more students are getting the chance to organize, cooperate, and compete with their peers. Gaming can sometimes be an isolating activity, but esports clubs around the country are connecting students through their passions more than ever before.