LF_122718

LakeForestLeader.com SPORTS
the lake forest leader | December 27, 2018 | 27
IHSA forms council for esports after rise in popularity
LFHS esports club
on tap for 2019
Brittany Kapa,
Freelance Reporter
More people watched
the championship game
for the 2018 World Championship
for “League of
Legends” than they did
the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl was
viewed by 103.4 million
people, according to
an article by CBS News.
The final round of play
for “League of Legends”
had 205,348,063 individual
eyes glued to their
screens.
That kind of attention is
hard to dismiss.
“Esports is the definitely
the fastest growing
sport in the world,” Brian
Boruszak said, the faculty
advisor for Lake Forest
High School’s newest
esport video game club.
“It’s accessible to lots of
people, the cost is incredibly
low, and “League of
Legends” costs zero to
play, all you need a computer.”
Esports will enter its inaugural
season of competition
in January 2019 at
Lake Forest High School,
and comes on the heels of
an important announcement
from the Illinois
High School Association.
The IHSA announced,
via email, the approval
for the formation of an
advisory committee for
esports after it’s Dec. 10
Board of Directors meeting.
“We are excited any
time we can entertain
the possibility of offering
Illinois high school
students more opportunities
to represent their
schools in competition,”
Craig Anderson said, the
IHSA executive director.
“We know that students
benefit in the short- and
long-term when they are
involved in a high school
sport or activity. Esports
may present us with a
chance to expand our mission
by creating another
new and unique State Final
experience.”
The announcement is
openly and excitedly welcomed
by Boruszak and
his club, and while the
advisory committee isn’t
scheduled to meet officially
until spring 2019
for Boruszak it takes the
From ice to nice
Scouts girls hockey’s holiday tradition helps local children
The Scouts girls
hockey team,
which includes
students from
Highland Park
High School,
completed their
fifth annual holiday
shopping trip
that benefits four
children in need.
Photo Submitted
sport in the right direction.
“I think this is huge because
it gives credibility
to the entire process and
platform,” he said. “It definitely
takes some talent
and dexterity.”
Lake Forest will primarily
focus on one particular
game, “League of
Legends,” during its inaugural
season beginning
in January, Boruszak said.
“League of Legends,”
is a game played online
via a computer and puts
two teams of five players
against each other on a
set map within the game.
The goal of the game is to
destroy the other team’s
base in the online massive
battle arena. “League
of Legends” is the largest
online esports game
played globally, Boruszak
said.
Like other sports, there
is preparation that goes
into every game and strategy.
The game contains
140 characters, and before
every game there is a draft
and teams can ban other
players. Heavy research is
done into counter matchups
and team will even
study film from previously
recorded matchups
of other teams.
Gameplay itself takes
mechanical skills, good
hand-eye coordination,
teamwork and communication.
Like typical
sports, skilled individual
plays are broken down,
replayed and played in
slow motion to highlight
the keystrokes a player
used to win. Players study
these moves, the combination
of button strokes
and try to replicate those
in their own play.
The Lake Forest esports
club is already practicing
at their weekly meetings,
where anywhere between
18-25 students participate.
With those numbers
Lake Forest would have
enough players to field a
varsity and junior varsity
level team, Boruszak said.
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Lake Forest played an
exhibition game already,
just to get the feel of how
their team would perform
against others. But
rather than loading into a
bus and driving an hour
or more, the team simply
logged onto a computer at
the school and competed.
The cost of the sport
is limited as “League of
Legends” is a free online
game. The only cost is a
computer. The graphics
of the game aren’t overally
sophisticated either,
so special equipment
isn’t needed to play. The
game is also undergoing
constant updates, for bug
glitches, so the game is as
fair as possible since players
aren’t able to exploit
potential loop holes in the
game.
The IHSA esports advisory
committee will
consider working in conjunction
with PlayVS,
the Official High School
Esports League. PlayVS
is the exclusive partner of
the National Federation of
State High School Associations
(NFHS) and has
partnered with the NFHS
to operate high school
esports leagues for over
19,500 high schools nationwide,
according to the
IHSA release.
“Last year $5 million
in scholarships were
awarded for “League of
Legends” players, this is
something that is going to
be organized, something
that you can reach out to
recruiters and can see in
a organized competitive
forum,” Boruszak said.
“It opens up doorways for
our students.”
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