Students from all Middle Schools go to South Side for the Esports Tournament

By Montserrat Nino (9)
montserrat.nino@fwcsstudents.org

May 15, 2024

“We wanted to pull in middle schoolers into South Side so they can get an experience to see the building and to have an opportunity to have an organized esports event for middle school students,” Esports coach and science teacher Nick Adams said.

Students who came to visit for the tournament were able to see how South Side looked and had fun playing Mario kart. 

“There are a lot of opportunities through esports for college and after college. My brother for example went to college and got a lot of scholarships for esports and is able to go to graduate school on a lot of scholarships that were related to esports, esports also helps with leading into careers that include computer science, broadcasting, and more things related,” Adams said. 

When you join esports you can get scholarships and it can get you to a lot of high paying jobs. 

“I just wished we could’ve gotten information out sooner and quicker,” Adams said. 

Information was put out one week before the tournament so it was last minute. 

“I didn’t have anything else to do after school so I came here to help my team and make sure everything is okay,” Julian Starks (10) said. 

There were students from South Side around helping the middle school students with the games and instructions, making sure everything went smoothly. 

“I think it’s cool to see that younger people are interested in joining esports, especially seeing more people than how it was last year,” Starks said. 

Last year there weren’t many students who participated although this year it nearly doubled. 

 “I don’t think there should be a change in anything we're doing. I feel like right now everything is going smoothly,” Starks said. 

Everyone had fun so there wasn’t anything else you could really ask for the tournament. 

“I thought it would be a nice experience to understand what esports is all about and meeting new people with the same interests,” Jackson Ball (12) said. 

The students that were helping out were also experiencing what esports is about. This is a great start for an interest they may have. 

 “Esports is something I like and do in my free time so it’d be nice to go into it for a profession and I feel like I would enjoy doing that profession more,” Ball said. 

A profession that may include esports are journalists, shoutcasters, streamers, software developers, and fandom art and media. 

“We shouldn’t change anything right now since it’s going really smoothly in terms of organizing and putting everything together,” Ball said. 

Everything there was very organized. They had drinks and food on one end while the students were in the front playing mario kart, and even their parents had a place to sit and hang out. 

“Last year I got to help out the tournament when we had nine people and I would think about how many students we could have next year, and some of the kids that are in their freshman year came in last year for the tournament. So I want to see the middle schoolers and see their skills and how they do things and put in a new job for them next year during tryouts,” Valentino Rosario (11) said. 

This tournament is based on what skills these students have and what they may need to work on when they do join esports their freshman year. 

“I looked over in the science hallway and I saw a poster talking about esports, and I also saw how they were having smash brothers and it just reminded me when I was had the Wii when I was four I started playing it and when I went I ended up making my whole friend group there,” Rosario said. 

Joining esports or any club can help with finding people with similar interests as you and even finding new friends along the way. 

“I feel like if I was in charge I would change the stations into something more out in the middle instead of the separate rooms,” Rosario said. 

Where they did the tournament was in the school’s library so they would be put in separate rooms which can catch some people off guard. 

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