Esports in Education Exploring Educational Value in Esports Clubs, Tournaments and Live Video Productions
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Esports in Education Exploring Educational Value in Esports Clubs, Tournaments and Live Video Productions By Paul William Richards Copyright © 2020 Paul William Richards All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations included in critical articles and reviews. For information, please contact the author. Photographs by Michael Luttermoser Photography Copyright © by Michael Luttermoser. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. ISBN: 9781673224436 DEDICATION To esports coaches who are helping students explore their dreams and achieve excellence in competitive video gaming. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Free online course included with this book is available at: StreamGeeks.us/esportsEDU Esports scholarship available at: StreamGeeks.us/esports Free digital copy of this book is available at: PTZOptics.com/book Facebook Group : https://facebook.com/groups/esportsEDU CONTENTS Acknowledgments i 1 Meet the Future 1 2 Common Ground in Esports & Education 4 3 A Brief History of Video Games 6 4 The Study of Video Games 11 5 Getting the Most Educational Value Out of Video Games 17 6 From a Teen’s Pastime to the International Stage 28 7 What is Driving the Esports Phenomenon? 33 8 Types of Esports 36 9 Top Esports Tournaments 40 10 College Level Esports Programs 46 11 Careers in Esports 50 12 Esports and Traditional Sports Collide 56 13 An Insider View Into Esports 59 14 Starting an Esports Club at Your School 63 15 Side by Side Broadcast Clubs and Esports 73 16 Morning Announcements and Esports Shoutcasters 78 17 Hosting an Esports Tournament 91 18 Live-streaming a Basic Esports Tournament 93 19 Advanced Esports Tournament Live-streaming 98 20 How to Design an Audiovisual Display for Esports 113 21 An Optimistic View of Esports and Education 124 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A big thank you to Jadd Schmeltzer from the Center for Educational Innovation, Emil Bodenstein from Alpha North Esports and Todd Conley from HighSchool.GG for the long conversations that helped structure this book. Thank you for all the introductions to folks in the esports industry who generously shared their time and expertise to help craft this book. i 1 MEET THE FUTURE The year is 2015 and the weather is beautiful in Los Angeles, California, where "The Summit 3 by GIGABYTE," a DOTA2 esports tournament is being held. DOTA stands for Defense of the Ancients, which is a strategy-based video game that requires exceptional mental and physical skills to compete on a world stage. This year's event features the top six teams in the world competing against one another for a grand prize. The three best teams from China have flown in from around the world to compete with two teams from America and one from Europe. This event has been billed as one of the biggest “East Versus West” showdowns in history. As expected, the event venue is buzzing with life. There are camera crews and the usual frenzy as everything gets set in place for the live broadcast. Meanwhile, players are taking one final look at their equipment to make sure everything is as it should be. Team leaders are going over strategies and giving final pep talks before the competition begins. At the same time, tens of thousands of spectators are waiting and an almost reverential hush spreads around the venue. As the countdown signal starts, players sink into their custom gaming chairs and stare intently at the bright computer displays in front of them. Over the shoulder of one player, through a glass-covered window, you can spy a stately palm tree overlooking a quiet street in a suburban neighborhood. This is the home of David Parker, the co-founder of BEYOND THE SUMMIT. Parker is helping organize the studio that is live streaming the competition online. The audience here is just as big, but instead of a huge stadium with thousands of screaming fans, viewers are spread all over the world inside everyday homes. The six five-man teams are playing what the industry considers a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game. There is a camera crew for this competition, complete with everything needed to create an immersive experience for the online audience. Parker and his team deliver viewers a similar experience to what audiences can see on the massive LED screens in stadiums. Live streams of this caliber today leverage new tools that allow viewers on Twitch and Mixer the ability to interact with the game that is being played and open interactive panels that will show player stats, inventories and other real-time developments. 3 ESPORTS IN EDUCATION Over the next eight days of the tournament, tens of thousands of spectators will log onto their computers, mobile devices, and smart TVs to follow the game in real-time. Teams will be competing for a money pool of $270,000, a sum that quite small by today’s standards. Before the final day, live audiences will reach up to the one hundred thousand mark. Despite being separated by great distances, spectators can communicate online in the chat room and keep pace with a level of engagement that rivals what crowds are used to in traditional sports. This is the world of esports. Welcome to the future! Fast forward to the 2019 TwitchCon show in San Diego, California. I am speaking with a gentleman named Todd Conley from HighSchool.GG who is helping to design an esports curriculum for high schools around the country. Conley introduced me to a Mark "Garvey" Candella, who is the Director of Student Education and Youth Programs at Twitch. Together, we start talking about esports and the work I have done with school broadcast clubs. Garvey is working with University-level organizations to help prepare the education system to train students for careers in esports. This is where our story begins. I tell Conley that he is invited to our upcoming “StreamGeeks Summit” in New York City, where we plan to bring together the top minds in the live streaming industry. Our team is already working with education systems across the United States, preparing students to seek careers in the video production and broadcast industry. The broadcast industry which once consisted only of radio and television is now growing at a tremendous rate to keep up with online streaming media. This growth is fueled in part by esports. Helping students become better prepared for careers in an industry that combines video gaming, technology, and live streaming seemed to be a match made in heaven. Conley helped explain how middle and high school level students are often unsure of how their passion for esports could lead to a real-world career path other than competitive video gaming. Conley made a few calls and realized that the StreamGeeks Summit could help bridge the worlds of existing broadcast clubs and newly forming esports organizations in education. Students interested in esports could learn about video production and students involved with their school broadcast clubs could help live stream esports tournaments. A few weeks later, we had worked out an agreement with the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI), who helped us with the outreach to school districts in the five boroughs of New York City. In less than one month, we planned to host a student-run broadcast of an esports tournament in NYC. 4 ESPORTS IN EDUCATION This is a book for any student, parent or educator interested in the intersection of esports and education. Throughout the following chapters, readers will uncover the need for a strong educational system that can help support student interest in esports. This book explores esports from a perspective of acceptance and encouragement where educators have the chance to find common ground that can help students excel in a sport, they are passionate about. Understanding how to make esports more educational requires an understanding of esports, video gaming culture, and the latest studies on sports and technology. By reviewing the history of video games in our culture and comparing academic papers on relevant subjects this book hopes to help students, parents, and educators find a positive future for competitive video gaming as a varsity-level sport. Through in-depth expert interviews and examples set by leading educational organizations you will uncover how a teenage pastime has evolved into an international phenomenon that has set a course to change the way the world views competitive sports. If the esports and education systems in place today can come together to channel the excitement and energy behind competitive video gaming, there is the opportunity to create an inclusive and productive culture that can embolden today's youth to take on the challenges our world will face in the decades to come. It’s important to note that this book includes an online course that reviews each topic in the book in greater detail on Udemy.com. This online course and the book’s included glossary are available to enhance your learning. If you come across a vocabulary word that you are unfamiliar with, simply flip to the back of this book and look up the meaning of the word. If you would like to ask questions about a specific topic, you can enroll in the Udemy course and ask questions directly to the course instructor.