LIMA, OH (WLIO) - On top of being state soccer championships, Lima Shawnee High School students are bringing home state titles in another competition Esports.
In 2018, Lima Shawnee High School was one of many that joined Esports Ohio, a non-profit that connects over 200 schools to compete against each other in video games. Back in January, the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced an official partnership with Esports Ohio.
"They're going to provide all the trophies, pretty much when you go to the state competition it'll have OHSAA names all over it. It's not considered a sport yet, which we're kind of moving in that direction," said Shawnee's Esports Coach, Kevin Favro.
The Shawnee team has won several state titles for different games and just had a team win state for League of Legends this past fall. To be able to qualify for state tournaments, the students have to put in effort to become both skilled players and leaders.
"I was team captain in my situation, our skills were very unrefined, our chemistry was at the floor, so I had to figure out ways how to bring the team together and then of course it wasn't just me alone. I just kept researching, gave the team more info, and then we rehearsed obviously outside of school, and then we just kept building our teamwork up from that," said Christian Powell, a sophomore who plays on the Valorant team.
Being on the team might make students better at a game, but that's not the only thing they're improving.
"I've definitely grown a lot more and I've had a lot more social skills, definitely, because you have to know how to team build and get along with other people," said Ezra Miller, a sophomore who plays for the Valorant and Rocket League teams.
Owen Steidl, a junior and player for the Valorant, Rocket League, and Overwatch teams, hopes to pursue a career in engineering and has been able to improve at other skills that might come in handy in a STEM career.
"Troubleshooting computers, I've always been decent at it, but making sure I know how to do it for Esports is also very important, so I've learned a few things about PCs that I didn't know before through Esports," he said.
Coach Favro says that two colleges have already come to speak to the teams about the potential to earn scholarships for continuing their Esports careers in higher education.
"It seemed like I had a pretty big group of kids that were interested in doing something like that, and I told them, 'Hey, if you can get a scholarship for playing games, I mean, that's icing on the cake," he said.
