Game controllers and video screens filled the auditorium at West View Campus in Imperial Beach on Monday evening.
Family and friends gathered to watch their third through sixth graders take part in the semifinals of the Bay Clash Championship.
Pence Elementary School sixth grader Roel Araujo was one of dozens of students taking part in the first-ever playoffs for the South Bay Union School District's new Esports League.
“I was recently moving into my new school and my mom was looking through clubs because she has work. And she found esports and I asked her what's this about? And I got signed in,” Roel said.
Esports are organized video game competitions. In this case, the game being played is Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch.
The animated fighting game — where the winner is the last character or team standing — is popular with fans of all ages.
“I've been playing it ever since I was 5 years old I think,” said fourth grader Michelle Castañeda.
South Bay Union is the first elementary district in the region to have an esports program, according to Chris Garcia, an educational technology coordinator for the San Diego County Office of Education.
“We have about 43-plus school districts in the entire county and more or less we have about half of them that have an esports presence,” Garcia said.
South Bay Union’s esports league is an after school program. The inaugural season lasted about eight weeks before playoffs kicked off earlier this month.
“In this particular tournament what we do is two (versus) two. So it'll be students from one school playing another two students from another school,” said South Bay Union Athletics and Clubs Supervisor Jorge Cerna.
The district started the league because students are already playing competitive video games at home, and physical sports aren't always inclusive, Cerna said.
“A lot of students can still be a part of a team, but they don't have the same desire to do physical sports, but esports is still very challenging and team based,” he said.
In some cases gaming is helping in the classroom too, Mendoza Elementary esports Coach Adrian Castro said.
“We actually went ahead and piloted this program last year. We were the only school to go ahead and test it out to see what the reception was from the students,” he said. “They were coming in every day. Some of our students who had a lot of absenteeism issues, they were actually coming into school excited to participate.”
Esports has exploded in popularity over the past decade.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) — the state governing body for high school athletics — recognizes over 750 varsity esports teams across the state and hundreds of colleges and universities now have esports programs.
Competitive gaming still requires practice, teamwork and rule following, like any other sport, Castro said.
“Now we have an opportunity for students they can show off these skills and say hey ‘I represent my school and I can show off these skills in these kind of big league tournaments,’" he said.
The Bay Clash Championship finals take place Thursday.
The winning school will earn a trophy and banner, plus first place medals and bragging rights on the digital playground.
The next season starts in February.
