High school gamers strive for big league

The Adelaide Crows have launched a national high school Esports league as the first of its kind in Australia.

Unley High School’s Tim Chloupek, Aiden Hendry and Joshua Cudmore.

In a reflection of the increasing commercialisation of the Esports phenomenon — competitive video-gaming competitions — AFL club the Adelaide Crows has launched a national high school league as the first of its kind in Australia.

As part of digital entertainment and technology event Hybrid World Adelaide, four high school team finalists from South Australia and NSW will compete on July 21 and 22 for top honours.

The move to foster young talent as competitive gaming shifts towards the mainstream follows the Adelaide Football Club’s ­acquisition of Legacy Esports in May last year.

Esports have become an international phenomenon amid rapidly increasing rates of online gaming, piquing the interest of traditional sporting organisations such as the Crows in a growth industry set to be worth more than $1.5 billion by 2020.

Legacy competes in League of Legends (the world’s most popular Esport), ability-based shooter Overwatch, Rocket League, strategy game Starcraft 2 and first-person shooter game Counter-Strike Global Offensive.

The Esport premise is built on spectators watching professional gamers, just as a tennis fan would watch their favourite tennis player compete in a tournament.

Aiden Hendry, 16, is excited by the prospect of showing off his gaming skills to spectators at the national high school finals in ­Adelaide.

He is one of three members of Adelaide’s Unley High School team that will compete against other finalists from Peel High School (NSW), St Michael’s College (South Australia) and Kiama High School (NSW) in Rocket League, a vehicular soccer game where players control cars and try to hit the ball into the opposing team’s net.

The finals will be hosted by international Esports identity Muselk, who has almost 5.5 million YouTube subscribers and more than 350,000 Twitter followers, at the Adelaide Convention Centre and streamed live to the world. “It’s an awesome opportunity to meet all the up-and-coming pro gamers in Australia and get even more people involved,” Muselk said.

Hybrid World director Amanda Duthie said the event was “the perfect setting to showcase Australia’s growing Esports com­munity”.

Aiden became interested in Esports in 2015 when a school friend introduced him to the Rocket League game. “This (national finals) is like a small step towards the professional realm of Esports,” he said.