E-sports finds niche among isle teens

When more than 15,000 people packed the KeyArena at Seattle Center last summer, it wasn’t to watch the WNBA’s Seattle Storm or Seattle University play basketball. Instead, more than $20 million was up for grabs during the final round of the 2016 International DOTA 2 Championships, a tournament for players of the video game “Defense of the Ancients.”

In October, Los Angeles’ Staples Center welcomed gamers to the 2016 League of Legends World Championship, where more than $6.7 million in prize money was distributed and 43 million people watched the final round live on the internet.

Competitive video gaming, or e-sports, has finally hit its stride among mainstream American fans after toiling in relative obscurity for a decade. Traditional professional sports leagues like the NBA are now attempting to connect with the gamer community: An NBA 2K16 Road to the Finals contest invited teams to play popular console video game “NBA 2K16” in a live setting, with a $250,000 grand prize and tickets to the 2016 NBA Finals going to the winners. Turner Broadcasting System Inc.’s Turner Sports and talent agency William Morris Endeavor’s IMG even launched its own professional gaming league, ELeague, last year with 24 teams and $1.2 million in prize money, streaming matches online via gaming website Twitch as well as regular air dates on cable network TBS.

“With ‘League (of Legends),’ they’ll go to Staples Center and sell it out in five minutes. The Lakers can’t even do that,” said Devin Wolery, owner of computer lounge PC Gamerz Hawaii.

“Even the colleges are starting to do more stuff with gaming. What (the University of California at) Irvine did recently was put an e-sports center on campus and made people pay to play, so there’s definitely a business model there.”

While most of the gamers Wolery, 33, sees at his Aiea business are in their 20s and 30s, he knows there is another generation of teenagers following them who play those computer-based multiplayer games and others like “Counterstrike” and “World of Warcraft.” Games played on traditional video-game consoles are also popular, with many younger gamers focusing on Nintendo’s “Super Smash Bros.”

“The youngest kids we get for ‘League’ are probably around 16,” Wolery said. “It’s a really good way to socialize, which is really what we sell, the social experience. You can find new teammates for upcoming tournaments, you can make new friends or you can play with the friends you already have. It kind of opens everyone up to meeting new people.”

For high school junior Justice Cabantangan, 16, video games are another way for him to spend time with his peers. He also participates in traditional sports like basketball and volleyball during the academic year at Damien Memorial School but took it upon himself to establish the Monarch eSports club during his sophomore year.

“A lot of people who are into e-sports are really introverted,” said Cabantangan. “But when you have a bunch of introverts together who are all into the same thing, that’s when they really break out (of their shell).

“My goal is to raise awareness of what e-sports is. People think video games are just a distraction. The club is meant to provide kids with an environment to interact with each other.”

Cabantangan started the club in 2015 with 10 students. He said there are now 24 members split among two teams that play both “League of Legends” and “Super Smash Bros.” Virtual practices are held multiple times during the week after school, and team members meet up in real life to practice at least two or three times per month. He hopes to eventually transition the team into a bona fide sport recognized statewide.

“My vision is to have something like the ILH (Interscholastic League of Honolulu) for gamers,” he said. “It would be called the IELH, or the Interscholastic Electronic League of Hawaii, with e-sports teams from schools on all islands.”

Although the state Department of Education doesn’t officially acknowledge e-sports clubs at high schools in Hawaii, both Cabantangan and Maryknoll junior Chelsea Michel — who founded the eSpartans club at her school in 2015 — said they’ve played against teams of students from Farrington, Roosevelt and Moanalua. The biggest challenge, they said, is getting the word out about their efforts to recruit more teen gamers.

“The way it is right now, it’s kind of hard to connect with other schools,” said Michel, 16. “A lot of people do (play video games) online, but maybe there’s a stereotype they don’t want to be caught up in.”

Michel said it wasn’t hard to persuade Maryknoll administrators to let her form a club on campus, with the only concern being the amount of violence found in some games.

“When we talked about supporting e-sports, there were a lot of advantages,” said Maryknoll vice principal of student life Camille Michel, who is also Chelsea’s mother and the eSpartans club adviser. “You don’t require facilities (or) additional staffing like timekeepers or referees. They don’t even need uniforms if they don’t want them, so it’s very easy for the school to support.”

They were supportive of her efforts to build a new community within the school that provided another outlet for students who aren’t interested in traditional sports.

“Gaming has expanded my friend group,” said Chelsea Michel. “I usually just keep to three or four friends, but through gaming I kind of just found this community where I have a lot of fun.”