Esports gaming league partners with Troy schools to form new team

TROY — Baseball, hockey, football … “Fortnite”?

While many teens enjoy video and computer games as a pastime, those in the Troy School District can now put their skills to the test as the district joins the communities taking part in AoE Esports, a competitive esports league.

“AoE Esports is an organization organizing youths in esports in organized tournaments,” explained league co-owner Harry Greenspan. “We create a clear and encouraging building block to get scholarships and build contacts in esports. Some of our coaches also coach for college gaming teams, for instance.”

“It incorporates a lot of structure in gaming. We want to take the tools they use in gaming and apply them to real life situations,” added co-owner Surab Deb. “We partnered with a lot of universities, so we can work with their students. This also lets us talk to these universities so they will be looking at our league for talent.”

AoE’s Troy team will be based at the Troy School District’s Continuing Education Building. They will compete against other community teams. Games played include titles such as “Fortnite,” “Minecraft,” “Among Us” and “Madden NFL.”

The program came at no cost to the school district.

“We asked how to reach more children. We tried to partner with as many school districts as possible,” said Deb. “We spoke to the school board and administrators in Troy, who were interested in our concept, and we developed the program with their input. Harry comes from a traditional sports background, so he knows how to work with schools and communicate with parents.”

“The Troy team is the Troy Terminators, and it will have students from all the Troy schools,” said Greenspan. “They’ll be playing against teams in North Carolina, Vancouver, Japan and all over. … We do three seasons per year, fall, winter and spring, and we do camps in the summer.”

A Q&A session about their next season starting in January will take place in Troy for families who may want to explore what AoE Esports has to offer.

“The Q&A will be at the Troy College and Career Center at 1522 E. Big Beaver Road on Nov. 13 and 27,” said Greenspan. “They will be from 3-4 p.m. both days. They can email us at gg@aoeesports.com. The website www.aoeesports.com is where they can go to sign up.”

Greenspan said that such a league can be important to a whole subset of high school students who might otherwise not join any sort of team.

“So many of these children play hours and hours of video games, so why not offer them a scholarship for doing it? We saw a void in esports in this area. There were no leagues in the high school level. It’s a recreational league, but we are fine tuning it for children who want to take it more seriously,” he said, stating that, “84% of our children are first timers having a team, having teammates and having a coach. It’s an important experience that they weren’t often getting. … You don’t have to be 7 feet tall. You just need to have good dexterity or good reaction time.”

He added that it can be a great way to build communication and social skills.

Deb said that such teams can open up new opportunities. It can be a great way to network, allow them to apply for certain scholarships and be a good entry point for emerging career paths.

“Gaming has become a strange career path since there are applications for it in terms of career paths such as drone pilots in the military,” he said. “You are seeing more job growth in areas like programming and emerging technology, and gaming can lead students to careers like that.”

“There are people who make a living streaming games or walking people through it or just commentating on other people playing,” remarked Greenspan.

There is a cost to join the team each season, but the cost provides all the equipment and other needs for the season.

“We provide the top equipment for the team. We want everything to be top-shelf for the next five years,” said Greenspan. “Right now, the cost to join is $179 for the season to join per student, plus $50 for a jersey.”

They also said that the league not only gives them a place to play, but helps team members finetune their gaming skills.

“Once in the league, players gain access to our curriculum with 100s of hours of lessons, drills and educational game videos,” Greenspan said. “It is up to each player and their desire to be great, ultimately. We just want them to know we have their back with the latest professional training methods available at their fingertips.”

Both co-owners said that this could be a previously unexplored avenue for students to advance their education, forge connections and simply have fun in a team-based environment.

“If you game already, why wouldn’t you want to do it in a safe, nontoxic environment with a coach and teammates and put your skills to the test in a competitive atmosphere?” asked Greenspan. “Why not work with others who can improve your skills in a friendly, constructive way? Why not see if this could lead to some scholarships or job connections?”