OUTLOOK - They sure didn't have this class offered to students when this reporter was going to school.
At LCBI High School in Outlook, take a walk through the main door from the parking lot and look to your right into the first classroom that pops up. On certain days after classes have let out, you're bound to see a group of students sitting at computers, and even a few more students sitting and watching what their peers are doing on a drop-down screen.
What a minute, what exactly am I looking at here?
You're looking at the LCBI Esports team (electronic sports) in action; competitive, school vs school online gaming that sees participating student bodies from all over North America and beyond play for points and team rankings.
As it turns out, the LCBI squad has made the gaming world's version of playoffs. Playing the massively popular game of Overwatch, a title set decades into the future with a focus on multiplayer, hero-based combat between teams of players who vye for various objectives, the Bisons were getting ready to take on the 6th ranked Maple Mountain High School out of Utah, with a student population of just over 1700. At the time, LCBI was ranked 27th, but the team felt good about their chances of notching up a few levels going into the game.
For anyone who might have an interest in checking out what the students are doing or how the team is progressing, the LCBI Streams page on Facebook will broadcast videos of the competition. Doing so not only allows people to check out the atmosphere of such a unique school team, but it also encourages other students to possibly check out the team and inquire about joining up.
Instructor Bryan Balaton explains that LCBI has always had a hand in the gaming world and that it's expanded to the point where now the school itself recognizes it as an activity that falls under a particular department.
"Well, we've always had a gamer club, so it was just kind of a way to make it more legitimized," said Bryan. "Instead of just a bunch of guys having fun and doing something in their downtime, it was a way for the guys that were not in athletics to kind of mimic that athletic stance of 'You get your team games, you get to play together, you get to communicate, you learn skills, life skills and even just responsibility and accountability as a player towards your team, as opposed to just some of those individual sports.'"
The school has been involved in league gaming since 2020, something that no doubt popped up as a way to combat the Covid-19 pandemic at the time. What's been particularly impressive for LCBI is the progress that they've made, as the small school of approximately 100 students is routinely competing against schools with ten times the number of students in much larger, urban areas.
If it looks like LCBI is always fighting an uphill battle in this sense, it's because they are, as their competition will always be bigger than them.
"It's like the LCBI small town versus big city school dynamic," said Balaton. "And so a lot of those schools, when they're picking their players at the start of the season, they're all players that have played a lot and have very high experience. And a lot of our players are playing for the first time ever. They're at the beginning of the year and all of their skills are learned throughout the year. So it is a big learning curve for us."
Actually belonging to a certain department of LCBI's teaching formula has helped the team gain a sense of legitimacy.
"So actually, we're underneath the athletic department's umbrella," explained Bryan. "It's actually a part of the athletics department. So, yeah, it's recognized under that. When we first started, just before we came in this league, it was just like a group or another side activity that was kind of like, we have different clubs and things around campus where you can go in a wilderness club where you just kind of go out and do stuff. And it's just fun and you do it for part of the year and then you're done and there's no commitment. But with the teams, there's quite a bit more commitment."
In the days following this reporter's visit to the school to watch the kids in action, their season came to an end when they were defeated by the squad from Maple Mountain High School, despite putting up a solid effort against the Utah students.
Balaton says the great thing about esports is that there aren't any barriers for students who want to try it out, making for a welcome environment. He says the feeling of guiding and instructing the kids on different strategies in the gaming world is very similar to his work on the basketball court with Bison athletes.
"Well, I used to be the basketball coach, and it feels very similar to a sport like that, where a lot of the things they learn are not necessarily what they learn on the court, but how they learn to interact with each other and the kind of life lessons they learn along the way," he said. "Even if they do something negative to their team, it affects not just them, but their team. And even if they're just trying to do something on their own, it doesn't necessarily benefit anybody, right? So, it teaches them a lot of lessons, and I think as a coach, it's helped me with the other sports coaching as well because you learn a lot of different things that all relate to the exact same stuff. And even just getting together with people that have similar interests as you, but also come from different walks of life, I think that's really big too."
