Esports have been on the rise for a few years now, and have expanded from just professional to the college level. And now high school may be taking up the activity next. 

While a lot of it is still in development, a few active teams already exist. “We’re still in the organizing phase to have enough players to compete to find other schools we’re going to compete against, then when we have that set up we have frequent matches and competitions we’ll go to the next step of how to have it watched by the public,” said Mr. Jenkins.

Right now, the closest Esports game to being organized appears to be Rocket League, as the University of Oregon and Oregon State University have expressed interest in hosting tournaments. There is also an Oregon High School Rocket League Player Student Organization (HSRLO) that is working towards making competitive high school Rocket League an official thing. Not to mention, Lakeridge already has an official Rocket League team.

Something that esports often has to deal with is fan connection. Esports tend to have a lot of moving players and pieces, making it harder to connect to teams, as well as the issue of in-person fan support. “There has been discussion about having Wilsonville host our own invitational similarly to how we do in Track and Field. Inviting a large number of schools and putting on a big Rocket League tournament that spectators can come and watch and really get a taste for the Esport,” said Junior and Rocket League team captain Connor Larsen.

While it may not happen immediately, it looks inevitable that organized Esports will be coming to Oregon. To help speed up the process right now, each new team or player is a big help in getting esports toward the goal of an officially organized league.