In episode 228, we talk with Edmond Memorial High School Esports Coach Kate Swearingen about the teams playing against others across the state. You can find their games on Twitch.

Transcript:

og228

Michael: Greetings

and salutations my fellow geeks and welcome to episode 228 of the Okie Geek

Podcast brought to you by Okie Comics I'm Michael Cross. Students at Edmond

Memorial high school are enjoying the ever-growing community of e-sports. Their

coach is chemistry teacher, Kate Swearingen and she joins us now, Kate, welcome

to the show.

Kate: Hi, it's so

great to

be here.

Michael: So just

tell me first off e-sports at Edmond Memorial High. What's going on with that?

Kate: Yeah, so we

have a great program. We run three different games. We have Rocket League,

League of Legends and Smash Brothers. A ton of kids are involved. So it ranges

because we have a club and a class we have about 30 plus kids in the class, and

then we have just extra kids in the club, but we're hoping to even grow more

next year. But yeah, it's, it's really exciting stuff.

Michael: What made

you decide to start this thing?

Kate: So I've

always had a passion for making sure that kids have a space that they feel like

they belong.

And I used to work at a middle school where I started an

animate club and I would DM, Dungeons and Dragons as well. For a group of kids

there. And then when I moved to the high school, I knew I wanted to coach

e-sports because I played a MOBA at that time called heroes of the storm, which

isn't really around anymore.

But then, well it's around, but it's just not the same as it

used to be. But then a kid approached me cause I kind of let them know, you

know, Hey, like I like this based on like this to a kid approached me. He's

like, I really want to start a League of Legends team. And I knew about League

of Legends because in the same genre that I played so I was like, yeah, this

would be great.

You know, like some of my stuff will transfer over. So it

kind of took him the rest of the year to get the club going. And then last year

we had our first team League of Legends team. And then this year we have it as

an actual class. So we have even more e-sports now than we did last year. Cause

each of each of the own games are their own e-sports so,

Michael: , And

there's a community like a whole competition going on.

Correct.

Kate: Right. , we

participate in two different tournaments right now. We're a part of OBSL which

is the whole global e-sports league. And there are several high schools in

Oklahoma that participate in that one. And that's our state tournament. And our

playoffs will be April 3rd, but we're, we're sort of finishing up the regular

season.

We have just a couple more games of that to go. And then

we're a part of a nationwide tournament. That's called play BS. So we, we play

in that as well. And those, those real games, we have pre-season games right

now, but we're starting our real games for that. At the beginning of

March.

Michael: That's

amazing.

And so how are you guys doing so far?

Kate: We're doing

really, really well. We haven't started our real play yes games but for our ESL

games right now, we're undefeated. So in all of our sports,

Michael: That's

amazing. , Who else is in this  league,

The major players that you would know would be maybe union

or broken arrow, Jenks Okay, C grant and then there are some smaller schools

too.

Like we played Stillwell, not,  Stillwater Stillwell, and then we were

supposed to Salina today, but that got moved around. And so, yeah, there's,

there's just a whole range of schools, depending on which e-sport, it is some S

some of these sports are a little bit cheaper to get into than others.

Kate: So they're a

little bit more accessible.

Michael: Right. Do

you travel to these places too? Or do they come to you or do you just do it all

online?

Kate: Yeah, this

year, we're all in line. Because it's, you know, it's, it's better that way for

us this year. So they, they, we do play from a central location. We get

together and they get together, but the matches played online.

And when we, we played together, we're sitting apart from

each other. And there, the replay vs games, we all played from home for those

games because that's how play the us is structured this year. But for Oso, we

tried to play it together. It's just, it helps the integrity of that match a

little bit more.

So

has the COVID 19 impacted the, the games or, or the

tournament's in any way?

Yeah, it's made it a lot more difficult for some of the

schools to get teams together. Just because. Schools in general are, have put

so much energy into kind of the remote learning slash you know, trying to

figure out AB schedule or whatever they're doing this year that a lot of

coaches or teachers don't even have the ability to branch out into these kinds

of things.

So we had some schools that had dropped from ESL this year.

Just because they didn't have the bandwidth, so to speak to really get in on

that.

Michael: Yeah.

It's right now, schools are eating up a lot of bandwidth with their, at home

education, with our distance learning. Right. So how do you, how do you move

forward then if you're not having as much competition, does that, does that

hurt with what you guys are trying to do?

Kate: Yeah, it's,

it's definitely caused, I mean, it's the kids that have really suffered this

year as far as that's concerned, but that's why we became part of  this year is so that we could have those

extra games that we weren't getting out of ESL this particular year. And that,

I think that's going to fill that and the other good news about play the us is

that for ESL, I can only field one team, but we're pretty big school.

So we have three league teams. We can have up to four rocket

league teams of everybody's there. And then we can have like four or five smash

teams. So I have a chance for my JV teams to really play. And that's what I

want. I want each kid to have that chance, you know, like these kids, a lot of

them. This is their thing.

And so it's their chance to do that. And I really want them

to have that opportunity.

Michael: Yeah. I'm

kind of jealous. I wish this was around when I was in high school. What would

that, what does that mean to you to have something like this for these kids? Oh

Kate: my gosh.

It's so fantastic. I, I feel like I'm making so much more of a difference than,

I mean, I make a difference as a pre AP chemistry teacher, and I understand

that, but But to be able to be there for kids that don't necessarily have

another spot.

And aren't going to shine in all the same ways that my pre

AP chemistry kids and some, some of them are the same kids to be there, but

this allows them to have, I have that space, you know, and that, that means so

much to me because I had, I had my spaces as a kid. I was in band and orchestra

and I did all these things and that's really what.

Helped me in school. I think the most I was in, I was at all

pre AP or AP classes or whatever, too, but it was having that friend group and

those extracurricular activities that really made the huge difference for me

personally. And that's what I want for these kids.

Michael: Right.

And everybody talks about extracurriculars.

And usually when they talk about extracurriculars or talking

sports Ray, well, regular sports, football, baseball, basketball, but for some

of these kids, that's just not something that they're into or that they really

care about.

Kate: Yeah. And

from my kids, you know, this gives them that connection to the school culture.

They really feel like they're winning for the school. And I

have kids that would be failing if they, if they weren't some e-sports, they,

the only reason some of them do their work is so that they can play on the team

and to have that connection to the school is just huge. And the teachers feel

that way too.

The Eddie Memorial teachers are just fantastic. They have

really jumped in on this and they've they're very encouraging to the kids as

well. It's, it's fantastic to see if they'll talk to the kids about it, even if

they don't quite understand everything, they really they're really trying. It's

so it's so great to see what was

Michael: the

administration like when you first went to them and said, Hey, I want to start

an e-sports group.

Kate: So it

depends on the administrator that I talked to, but they were very in general,

they were very positive because e-sports had been growing as a group. And

Oklahoma city university had started their own e-sports program at the time

that I was kind of moving all my stuff through. So they got to see that.

And if they, once they could see the scholarship opportunities

and the way that it would help the kids connect. Then they were on board for

the most part. They have, they have some reservations. And I think that

education is a huge part of my job, you know, teaching other people what

e-sports is about and helping the administration see the value in every single

e-sport that we do is a huge part of my personal job as kind of our advocate

within the school system.

Right. But but they were, they've always been on board.

They're always about whatever helps the kids. I think. So. How

Michael: about, is

there, is there an education opportunity in e-sports

Kate: for sure. So

O U H this year announced their varsity. They went varsity this year. OSU has

stuff too. I don't think there's a scholarship yet, but it's going to get

there.

And then several of the local colleges do there's a whole

Oklahoma college. I think it's called OAC, E O O S or something like that. I'm

not exactly sure. Up on the college scene, but there's definitely collegiate

opportunities I've actually had One of my students just this past week,

actually yesterday he got a message from a collegiate coach asking if he could

start if he was interested in joining their collegiate team, but he's only a

junior.

So the guy didn't know that quite yet. Yeah. But it gets

Michael: them

ready for it. I, if, if he's already being recruited, Yeah.

Kate: And you

know, he's not even my, my best out of all of the players that I have. He's the

best at the sport that he's in, but then I have a fantastic other player.

That's just a sophomore and he's extremely, extremely good.

So I would expect him to also be very highly sought after,

as far as for, for the collegiate teams.

Michael: And also

computers, video games. These are the future. And unlike, you know, in, in

sports, even if you do go pro in sports, you've only got a few years of doing

your career, but in video games, you could keep doing it for your entire life.

Kate: Well pro

gamers do retire before, usually before I would think even 30 years old just

because reflexes and stuff slowed down, but they usually then transitioned to

other roles. A lot of pro gamers will then either become coaches or they'll

become analysts for teams or they'll become casters or they'll just stream

after that.

Right. So once you're done playing on an actual professional

team, like maybe cloud dine or our own team in Oklahoma city called Equinox

then they would go to. Being a coach for another team or yeah. Or just, they

can just stream online to all the fans. They may, while they were a pro gamer.

Michael: Right.

And that's, I mean, it's it, it's not just, I mean, yes, you, you might not be

pro the entire time, but there is a future that you can keep doing this for a

living for further on in your

Kate: life.

Oh, yeah. And it's not just the gamers, right? Like there's

so many other jobs that are associated with this. Someone has to organize the

tournament's. Someone has to, you know, keep the equipment up to date. I mean,

they have to have spectators shout casters. I mean, it's a whole, it's a whole

organized event.

So.

Michael: Well, and

even in the video game, Rita it's or video game companies themselves, they

still need testers. They still need people to be running these games. And

hopefully, maybe even some of the kids might even think about going on and

being programmers.

Kate: Yeah, I

I've. I have kids in my program that are definitely looking at becoming

programmers or they want to become video game designers or in this is kind of

just the way they fill that niche right now is they want to play the games.

And then oftentimes these same game developers, the same

game companies that own the games are the ones that control the e-sport as

well. So it ends up being where you're a part of the company that does the

e-sport that you love so much. So,

Michael: yeah. And

it gives them an education into the kind of the business aspect of it as well.

Kate: Right. And

they learn kind of that language and that culture that is really critical to be

a part of a company like that.

Michael: And so for

a lot of these kids that would just be playing these video games at home,

they're actually maybe getting something a little bit more out of it.

Kate: Yeah. I, I

really think so.

And we're not even right now touching on the idea of, you

know, communication through the games and all the other aspects that you get

from a traditional sport that are also present in e-sports. We'll talk a little

bit about that. Yeah. So each game that we play other than smash smash is one V

one, but other than that, they're all on teams.

And so they're constantly having to communicate with each

other on that level. Right. And especially in something like league of legends,

there's a particular. Positions on the team that have to really be aware of

everything that's going on the map and have to track the enemy movements, even

when they can't see them.

And they're constantly giving that communication to each

other and you know, they're a team and they're all high schools, high

schoolers. So they're, they're kind of sometimes. They'll they'll make

mistakes. Right? And so one of the ideas is how can we kind of leave the

mistakes in the past? How can we, not only they'll focus, not only on their own

mistakes, but each other's mistakes as well.

So how can we move past that? What can we do to not be so

focused on the mistake we just made that it doesn't ruin the rest of our game.

Right? And so communications are a huge part and, and team building is a huge

part. So because each kid. Fills a different niche on the team and leads the team

in a different way that it's just so critical.

The company, the composition of the team is so important as

well. So

Michael: when you

mentioned the smallest, a small town, like a Stillwell in Eastern Oklahoma, is

I just amazing that some of these smaller schools are starting to pick up on

the idea of e-sports?

Kate: Yeah. You

know, some of the e-sports can run on very limited computers and some of them

can run on a, on a cell phone.

So Some e-sports are pretty cheap to get into. Now, others

are more expensive, but e-sports, isn't just limited to the best of the best.

Now I want to play it the best, but but anyone, I don't, I'm not one of those

people. That's like, you're only a gamer if you're playing X or Y games, you

know? So

Michael: it's

just, it's about playing and especially about, I love the idea of the teamwork

that goes on.

Kate: Yeah, it's

definitely true. And not every game is a team game, but you're still learning

how to deal with your own mistakes, even when you're not playing as a part of a

team. Right. And keeping that kind of information that they keep, even like my

smash kids, they have so many different fighters that they can choose from.

And then understanding that the enemy can also choose any

one of those fighters. And then what's that magic gonna look like? Right. Like,

so they have to know their fighters so well against every other fighter in the

game. And then to just coming out with new fighters all the time. So they're

having to constantly update that.

It's just, it's something that they have to constantly be

growing as a gamer.

Michael: Well, and

it just smashes w one a pro player V player, but it's still just like in

traditional sports, there are sports out there. Try tennis, golf, et cetera,

where you are one-on-one but it's still, you've still got to be part of a team

and still be just as, as competitive as a team to go and play.

As you are in football, baseball, basketball.

Kate: That's

right. So when we play our play the S games, we're going to be on teams of

three on R and they have to do well. Each one of them has to carry their own

weight. You know, like, like in swim, you know, you swim, but you make the, or

tennis or whatever, you make it as a team, right.

At least in our stuff. So so yeah, they rely on each other

even then, and to be eligible to. So they're all relying on each other to, to

keep invested in the sport and to keep invested in their grades and they keep

each other accountable, which is great. How

Michael: long have

you guys been doing this?...