The Crows call on big-name gamer to host their esport schools event in Adelaide

AFTER last week acquiring baseball club Adelaide Bite the Adelaide Crows are now expanding its esports division with a major competition at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Elliott Watkins, 20, has a YouTube following so big that it has become his full-time job. He is a professional gamer. Pictured in his Sydney home. Picture Cameron Richardson

ADELAIDE’S involvement in esports is increasing with the Crows putting on an event with international esports identity Muselk at the Adelaide Convention Centre next month.

The Crows will stage the National High School Esports Rocket League Championship on July 21-22 with the finalists from a national competition being flown to Adelaide and the event streamed live around the world.

Muselk, who will host the event, said he could not wait to get to South Australia.

“I’m really excited to head down to Adelaide,” he said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to meet all the up-and-coming pro gamers in Australia and get even more people involved in this awesome opportunity.”

Muselk — who’s real name is Elliott Watkins — is a big deal in the growing world of gaming: he has more than 360,000 followers on Twitter and around five and a half million subscribers on YouTube.

To put that into context, the Adelaide Crows Twitter account has 150,000 followers.

Adelaide Crows Legacy Esports League of Legends team: Left to right, Min ‘Mimic’ Ju Sung, Lachlan ‘Sybol’ Civil, Brandon ‘Claire’ Nguyen, Julian ‘Raid’ Skordos, Daniel ‘Decoy’ Ealam. Picture: Supplied.

The Crows, which founded the High School Esports League and began a League of Legends competition this year, will partner Hybrid World Adelaide and the Events South Australia to put on the event.

HSEL commissioner Woody Wu said Rocket League was a natural next step for the Crows after it began its venture into gaming by buying a professional esports franchise, Legacy, and then establishing the high school league.

“We were looking at other games and which ones would make sense for the high school esports space and now have this great opportunity with Hybrid World Adelaide to put on a Rocket League tournament,” Wu said. “Rocket League, basically soccer but with cars, is a popular game suitable for high school students and is a competitive game that provides opportunities to build character and teamwork.

“In the same way it doesn’t make sense to only offer one sport at school, we need to offer more than one game for high school esports.

“We hope that the HSEL Rocket League Championship engages a broader student audience and results in students and teachers getting involved in the school ecosystem.”