Every year, CISP fields teams for soccer, basketball, swimming, badminton, and the arts. We join local and international tournaments such as ASAC and have our own sports academies for soccer and volleyball. And every year, a growing group of talented, committed students has nowhere to put that talent: the students who spend their evenings scrimmaging in ranked matches, studying VOD reviews, and coordinating five-person strategy with the same discipline as any varsity captain — but who have zero path to varsity recognition for it.
That gap is no longer a niche concern. The Esports Trade Association reports that high-school esports programs now engage more than 200,000 students, roughly double the number reported in 2020. Schools that start esports programs keep them, because they work by bringing crowds, involving students, and creating a community based upon a growing industry. Regionally, international schools across Southeast Asia are moving the same direction, building varsity esports into their athletics offering as a differentiator for prospective families.
But there's a second, larger gap CISP is uniquely positioned to fill: Phnom Penh itself has no established, credentialed esports academy for young competitive players. What exists is informal such as gaming cafés, ad hoc online coaching, unstructured community tournaments. None of it carries the credibility of a real academy where there is qualified coaching, a curriculum, safeguarding standards, and a pathway to recognized competition. A school with CISP's reputation is exactly the kind of institution families already trust to build that structure in the same way established schools build recognized football or swim academies that serve far more students than just their own enrollment. CISP has already done this with their new soccer and volleyball academies.
Over the last year, while running the Video and Board Game Club, I have had numerous discussions with students asking if they would join competitive game competitions. Students were excited at the possibilities and the more serious students said they would join a school-sanctioned team if one existed. Currently there is zero outlet for that interest inside the school. That demand exists before we've even opened enrollment to the wider community.
The question isn't whether the demand exists. It's whether CISP builds the structure to capture it first, as the founding esports academy in Phnom Penh, or leaves that ground to be claimed informally, or by someone else.