What are Esports? Some people think Esports are a waste of time, meaningless. But others think Esports are a way to do what you love with others that also love the same thing. They are a digital way to connect with people.

Esports are basically just like normal sports but with video games. Esports have different levels just like normal sports: high school level, college level, and professional. Esports feature many different games including Fortnite, CS-GO, Apex,Valorant, Rocket League, and many more. Excelling at esports is not an easy task as people spend thousands of hours to be able to play these games at a professional level.

Esports are becoming a big thing. Participants can even get scholarships for just being good at a video game. Even small schools are getting into the ESports thing, including the Tomorrow River High School, with esports arriving during the 2024-25 school year. Many people here are excited about ESports coming to the Amherst school, especially Isaac Glodowski.

Glodowski is hoping to join the Rocket League esports next year at school. Why does he want to join the school esports program? “Why not?” he said. “Games are pretty fun.” How does Glodowski define esports. He said, “Esports are basically just competitively played esports.” 

Everett Stremkowski is also hoping to join the Rocket League next year. Why does he want to join esports? For basically the same reason as Glodowski – games are fun and because he gets to play with friends. Back to the question, what are esports? Stremkowski answered, “It’s competitively played games.”

But how did esports become a possibility at Amherst? Thanks to one guy who wanted this to happen, Gibson Kenyon.

Kenyon is basically a founding member of the whole esports thing. He wants to play any game that is available to him because “it’s another way to be a part of the school community.” To him, esports is a way to be competitive and to have fun. Kenyon doesn’t think esports should be a long term career, however, although he did he start up esports here at Amherst? “I just bugged them until they did it,” he said.

Kenyon communicated his desire to Mr. Jarret Davidson,  one of the people who is starting and running the esports club, along with Mr.Lynch.

Davidson has big plans for the esports club. “I would like it to be an official club where kids are expected to compete like in athletics. I would also like to be able to shoutcast and stream to get kids future ready,” he said. Now, what is esports? Esports is any competitively-based online game, according to Davidson.

Watch for future updates as the club forms in the new year.