How and why competing in inter-school esports is beneficial for students

It’s easy to assume that video games are a negative distraction from academic achievement. There’s a persistent myth that video games are bad for schoolwork and detract from homework, studying and overall success in school. We at LPL are working towards changing that perception with High School League!

The High School League (HSL) aspires to provide high schoolers with a fun, competitive, and rewarding esports experience, similar to traditional high school sports. We promote esports as a positive experience that opens up sports team building, leadership opportunities and self improvement to a wider range of students outside traditional seasonal field and court sports.

Key pillars of HSL:

• Teams must have a supervising teacher on-board
• Teams are encouraged to play from school like traditional sports teams would
• If schoolwork suffers within seasons, players may be suspended from the team until their grades improve to a satisfactory level.
• Bad sportsmanship and online behaviour is not tolerated and will be disciplined by the league.

Still not convinced? Here’s some stats and quotes from our previous HSL participants explaining how controlled competitive esports can benefit a child’s well-being, learning, motivation and school pride.

The Digital Australia Report 2018 found:

• 71% of parents surveyed believed video games could help teach students new skills
• 70% believed video games could help motivate students
• 86% believed video games had the potential to teach students general knowledge
• 83% believed video games had the potential to teach students digital knowledge
• Over 1/3rd of parents said they had used video games to gain workplace knowledge, and 30% to learn a new software or digital tool.

“For some students, HSL is the first time the student is actively pushing themselves to achieve a challenging goal. This self-motivation allows the development of important skills such as communication and teamwork” says Danny Chang, Teacher and HSL supervisor at Mt Roskill Grammar.

“The success we have had has evolved around teamwork and communication” added Vincent Lo, Captain of the MAGS HSL team. “We ensure that each and every one of us talk as much as we can during the match as communication in a team is the key to success”.

HSL works in an extremely similar format to traditional inter-school sports. It provides some students the opportunity to represent their schools and region on a national level and to compete on a level playing field. The league consists of up to two 12-week seasons.  Each team plays against other schools in their region in a round robin tournament. This leads into the Playoffs over 3 weeks culminating in a State Grand Final with the best 2 teams from each division competing.

The competition provides students the ability to compete in male, female and mixed gender teams. Participation is not limited by geography, physical attributes or ethnicity – in fact Rangitoto High School’s 2018 Captain competed, and lead his team to victory, in the grand final from a hospital bed!

Our Dota 2 HSL Season 1 2019 is currently open for registrations, closing 11th February 2019. Students can sign up here & find more information here.

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