Sarnia high school hosts video game tournament for incoming students

Elementary students likely headed to Great Lakes Secondary in a year or two were invited to get to know the school a little better recently.

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But instead of classroom rounds, seventh- and eighth-graders battled it out in a Rocket League video game tournament.

The Clash of the Cubs — a nod to the school’s Wolfpack mascot — is the latest evolution in a not-quite-three-year-old esports program through the Lambton Kent District school board (LKDSB), said board officials Trevor Martin and Matt Sanders .

Inter-school tournaments are held in the spring and fall, schools compete in a Lambton College-hosted tournament, organized by the college’s video gaming and esports students, and plans are to start competing in another tournament at St. Clair College in Windsor next year , said Sanders.

“All the way along, the intention was to provide an outlet for students who maybe don’t participate in typical sports,” he said.

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The program has grown from a handful to just more than half of the board’s 62 elementary and high schools in Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent, said Martin.

Schools run their own programs, and they vary from casual in-school events with dozens of students involved, to competitive teams with just a few that participate in board-run leagues, he said.

“The one piece that’s really nice about the whole project itself is we do have parents who maybe typically or traditionally haven’t ever really been able to go to a school-sanctioned event and be able to celebrate their child,” Sanders said.

“So we see a lot of engaged, positive parents who are at these events celebrating these kids for their unique gifts.”

Esports is an industry valued at hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, with various career paths, the duo said, noting Lambton College program officials were instrumental in helping them set up their program, and students assisted with the Clash of the Cubs tournament Dec. 4.

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“By them supporting us in creating these events, those (college) students do get a true sense of experiential learning,” Sanders said, noting that’s a major focus for the Lambton program.

Lambton students also are developing a manual for other high schools in the board to host their own feeder school tournaments, Martin said.

“We do anticipate we’ll definitely see more and more of these,” he said.

“It’s just a great natural next step of esports clubs or teams.”

Great Lakes teachers Chris Sommers and John Spadafora also were key in organizing the tourney, he said.

Rosedale elementary ended up victorious in the Great Lakes tournament, though they’re not technically a Wolfpack feeder school, Sanders noted.

Rosedale was a last-minute replacement after another team dropped out, he said.

Rocket League, a free game Martin described as a cross between driving and playing soccer, is available on multiple platforms.

It’s the main game used for LKDSB leagues and tournaments because of its accessibility and versatility, Sanders said.

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