So the time has come! You’ve selected a game and it’s time to assemble a team of esport athletes. This is a critical moment for the team that should happen every year. You want to schedule tryouts as early as possible while letting students get into the flow of the school year. You’ll reach more students when they’re at a point in the year where they can choose to commit time to the team.
Advertising your tryouts is crucial to making as many potential players as possible aware of the upcoming event. Creating flyers, announcements, or social media posts will boost engagement and net you the biggest possible pool of applicants. If you have a Media Manager on your team, they should be in charge of your outreach projects.
Students who have a passion for the game might not make it as a player for the team. We encourage such students to stay with the team in coaching, management, or operational roles. Regardless of what position a student has on the team, they must maintain a minimum GPA (which can be determined by the school). We recommend making that clear on any advertising material you create and emphasizing it during pre-tryout meetings/tryouts.
More information about these roles can be found in the next chapter.
This often depends on your game and number of applications.
During tryouts, players will compete in multiple matches against one another. Make sure everyone gets an equal amount of games with as many different players as possible. Try to make sure the relative skill level of the two teams playing are close to even, unless you’re trying to see how one particular group of students work together as a way of testing a potential starting roster.
Image Source: NPR - ‘More than just video games’
All matches should be spectated by coaches. They should take notes and move players into different teams every few rounds. Although spectating is done differently depending on your chosen game, players should record their own point-of-view if possible.
If you have upwards of 20-40 students interested in trying out for a place on the team, you may want to consider hosting your tryouts over multiple days. Start by separating out the top half of the applicants by rank and having the bottom half tryout separately. Then, choose some of those applicants (roughly 25%) to move onto the second day of tryouts, where you invite the higher ranked players. From there, you want to make sure you have enough players to field a starting roster and at least three substitutes.
Sometimes the student body interested in playing the esport is large enough to have multiple teams. Although not recommended for first time coaches, this is certainly possible (and can even be a training asset) with the assistance of additional student-coaches.
After tryouts, the head coach should inform the applicants who didn’t make it to the starting roster that they have a choice of either playing as a substitute or joining the coaching staff. Some students will leave, but others will want to stay and help. For these students, talk to them about their perceived strengths and work with them to try and find the position that best enables them to succeed.