A new after-school program has been established at Cassville schools — eSports.
Robbie Artherton, program sponsor, said the eSports program is for high school and middle school students that are interested in competitive, organized video gaming.
“The popularity of eSports is a growing trend and we were excited to make this program available to our Wildcats this year,” he said.
Artherton said a pilot program in the fall had a couple teams and only three students involved. Opening the program up to all students in the spring resulted in a wave of participation.
“We put out a survey and pretty much everyone in our Technology Student Association said they were interested,” he said. “Now, we have about 35 students involved.” eSports is acknowledged by the National Federation of High School Sports as an activity, but it is not yet recognized by the Missouri State High School Athletics Association.
“We practice Mondays, and Tuesdays through Thursdays, we play against other schools in the central region,” Artherton said. “We’ve played teams from Louisiana to Chicago.”
Artherton said the driver of the program was that high level of participation, especially offering an extracurricular to those who may not participate in any others.
“We want to give the kids who do not play physical sports a way to get into competitive events, and we’ve been fortunate they’ve completely bought in,” he said. “Some athletes are involved, as well, but this is really good for kids who do not play traditional sports. It’s also beneficial because there is no travel.”
Artherton said since its inception, many have been for the program, but he’s heard negative feedback from patrons who do not believe students should play video games at home and at school.
“If we can motivate students to try harder in class and give them a team to be part of, I think that’s great,” he said. “They are also learning teamwork, communication, sportsmanship and how to act in an organized match versus how they may act at home. It’s been a good program, and I think it will continue to grow because video games are not going away, and they can be used to make a positive impact.”
Cassville sported nine teams in a handful of titles on multiple platforms, from League of Legends on PC to Madden on PlayStation and Super Smash Brothers on Nintendo Switch. Students played three weeks during preseason, eight weeks of regular season and finished the year with five weeks of playoffs.
A 50-50 grant totaling about $14,000 paid for the equipment, a cost Artherton said is likely a one-time expense.
“We don’t really need anything else,” he said. “The competition platform we use supplies most titles for free, and they even supply some for free for kids to practice at home.”
There are also opportunities to be had financially for participants.
“Tournaments end in a nationwide contest that can run through May,” Artherton said. “There’s also a ton of opportunities for scholarships to over 200 schools.
Artherton said with the success of the program this spring, he only expects it to grow.
“I think we will continue to build steam because new kids hit me up all the time to add new titles like Rocket League,” he said. “We had the numbers for that originally, but some of those kids were involved in other sports like track, which conflicted with the Thursday game times.”
For now, eSports will remain a spring offering, as Artherton coaches middle school football in the fall.
The district partnered with goBEC to provide the connection needed for this program.
“We appreciation the partnership with goBEC to help us provide opportunities to our students,” Artherton said.
Team results are as follows:
Ultimate Smash Brothers
MK Delta: Christian Renkoski, Dustin Simon and Devon Henry — finished 47th out of 137 teams and made it to the last 16 teams before elimination in the playoffs.
MK Ultra: Monty Hang, Nathaniel Hang, Abraham Cortez Garcia and Mio Haggard — finished 43rd out of 137 teams.
Little Mac Attackers: Kayden Fuchs, Bentley Barber, Colton Cox and Andrew Hooten — 48th out of 137 teams.
Splatoon
Wildsplate: Bentley Barber, Kayden Fuchs, Jackson Lindley, Andrew Hooten and Abraham Cortez Garcia — earned 71st out of 149 teams.
League of Legends
Ironleague: Ellis Hobbs, Colton Cox, Christopher Henry, Spencer Essary and Daniel Frazier — finished 27th out of 41 teams.
Mario Kart
Cassvegas Speedway: Colton Cox, Andrew Hooten, Christian Renkoski, Abraham Cortez Garcia, Devon Henry and Cole Cash — finished 123rd out of 162 teams.
Madden
Buckin Bronco: Cooper Hendrix — 27th out of 79 teams Goldenages: Trevis Moore — 23rd out of 79 teams Giddyup Set Go: Wyatt Bohanan — 46th out of 79 teams
