October 18th, 1958: that is the day that the first ever video game was created and introduced into the world. Ever since then, multiple video games have been entering the world with new prompts, ideas, whatever can be thought of.  When the first video game was released, the original idea of it was to show that science isn’t all about war and destruction, but people can enjoy it; however, the meaning has changed, and it’s more so for enjoyment and entertainment than science.

Video games are now enjoyed around the world by kids; everywhere, when there’s video games involved? There’s laughter, bonding, and diversity among others. Even though there’s arguments on who won the Mario Kart race, people that play video games have made a lot of friends through it. Officials have even said that video games have saved many lives, due to it positively affecting a person’s mental health. 

Because of video games creating communities of diverse humans, competitive sports have formed; one of these sports is called ESports. Esports began on October 19th, 1972, and ever since then, multiple teams have bonded together and have formed friendships over video games. 

Sophomore Caleb Herschberger is the general manager for the team, and has also formed a community through ESports. Herschberger has been a part of the team since August of last year, and has only thought about helping out his fellow players, along with being willing to rely on others whenever he messes up; because of this, he agrees that ESports is far more than just playing a video game, but it’s far more than that.

“ESports is more than just gaming, it’s more of a community.” Herschberger said. “All of the clubs say that, but it truly is a community where you get to bond with other people that have similar interests that you do, and are willing to bond with you and make friendships involving in and out of ESports.”

Not only is it a community for students, but it’s also a community for sponsors of ESports, especially for lead sponsor Kristopher Miller. Miller believes that positive communication with his players is the key, while making sure that his players are able to trust and respect each other.

“I try to foster positive communication between the players from them to me, so we can respect each other,” Miller said, “I feel that because of the positive interactions, the community that we’re building is helping them learn how to interact with people better, while also doing something that they enjoy doing.”

Along with it being a community, Mr. Miller being a guidance counselor also believes that the community the ESports team has isn’t just boosting the points up in a game; it’s also helping level up a student’s happiness.

“Kids usually sit at the back of the room whenever beginning ESports, and not engaging very much,” Miller said. “But suddenly, they start talking about the game, and that’s all they can do- they just come alive whenever talking about it, because they love it so much.”