For the past few years University High School has held an E-sports showcase, this year’s was the second one. Over one hundred kids were in attendance, on both Saturday and Sunday, on the first day everyone plays, and then on the second day people begin to get eliminated. There were several colleges at the school: University of Hartford, Central Connecticut State University, Fisher, Quinnipiac, etc. An additional family came from Ohio.
“It ran a lot smoother this year since it’s the second year, and we’re lined up to do it again next year”, said UHSSE principal Sean Tomany. “I have a feeling that it is going to get bigger,the key component about what the showcase is about is changing the mindset that video games are bad.”
A lot of adults feel that video games are negative, and that kids should be doing other things instead, and they have a hard time seeing positives in video games. Mr. Tomany talked to a mother who was surprised to see that her son was taking leadership of a team, and she never thought her son had the confidence to take a leadership role. E-sports has also shown a decrease in absenteeism, and has gotten students to engage in school. Mr. Tomany would also like to thank the Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez’s office for their support, and he said that this could not have been possible without their support.
Other staff members have also said the Esports showcase went very well. “This year’s Esports showcase was another great success, we had over one hundred players and spectators, college recruiters over the weekend.” said science teacher/magnet coordinator Caryn Baseler. “StayPluggedIn does a great job of setting up, running, and breaking down the event. While our UHSSE teams may not have come out on top every time, they all had a great time trying.”
One of the things that Mrs. Baseler likes most about the Esports showcase is that the students who are competing are always super excited. She also said that the college scouts add to that level of excitement when she sees students having scholarship offers made right at UHSSE. She feels that the Esports showcase is great for UHSSE because it allows students who may not have participated in other sports and clubs to join in and builds the school community.
The coaches agree that the Esports showcase went very well.
“I think the Esports showcase went very well.” said Esports Coach Dennis Obie. “We had people from Ohio, from New Jersey to University High School, just to participate in this Esports event.”
There were about eighty competitors, who as mentioned above were from many different states. Coach Obie talked to a mom from Ohio who wanted her team to experience a tournament style that was offered at UHSSE. The parents got together and decided that they wanted their kids to experience this, so he had a nice time talking to her. Competitively the students did not do great, except for Jordan Shelton-Smith ’26 who won the Madden competition. The way the tournament works is that the first day is placement, so everyone plays each other numerous times, and you don’t get eliminated. Based on the results of those competitions they rank you based on how many teams there are. The second day is elimination day, so that’s when you play in your brackets, the smash brothers team didn’t stay very long, the rocket league team also didn’t stay very long. Coach Obie also said that his favorite part of coaching Esports is that he can pull kids into an activity, that may not otherwise be in an activity. Anyone can do Esports, you don’t need to have certain skills, if you are interested in competing, you are able to compete. He enjoys that the team has students from all walks of life.
