I turned off Interstate 90 and climbed the curving streets into Mercer Island toward Islander Middle School (IMS). Signs on traffic medians, roadside planters, and roundabouts advertised a slew of extracurricular activities for local kids. They could play basketball, lacrosse, and softball. The signs, clustered together in thicker and thicker bunches as I neared the school, advertised a world outside of school full of scout meetings and team sports.
I was headed to the school to catch up with a different type of team sport, one made up of many kids who had never been on a team before.
Last November, IMS computer programming and robotics teacher Sarah Olson started an esports team at the middle school. The team of 13 students — all boys — play video games competitively (Super Smash Bros., Rocket League, and Mario Kart) in a league of seven middle schools which are part of the Washington State Scholastic Esports Association.
Olson said the team provides an outlet for new and existing gamers. It gives connection to a group of kids who may feel on the outskirts of the tempestuous middle school social scene. And, the team acknowledges the prevalence of esports at large, an industry on which these kids already have their fingers on the pulse.
“Gaming is a huge industry and a large part of our students’ lives,” Olson said. “We wanted to tap into that passion and help students who might be typically isolated into a place where they could form friendships and compete together.”
The esports market is worth $4.3 billion worldwide. Professional gamers make a living playing these games; there’s talk of establishing an esports Olympics; and in South Korea, esports gamers who win a gold medal in the Asian Games can bypass otherwise mandatory military service.
I came to one of the team’s three weekly after school practices just days before the league’s semifinals. With a winning record, the team felt it had a shot. But, before practice started, Olson — “Coach Olson” to the team — delivered bad news: the league only allowed teams with perfect records into the semis this year.
However, she and another school in Tacoma were in communication about organizing an in-person consolation tournament. All of the matches so far were played remote. If this inaugural in-person match were to happen, the kids would leave school in sixth period and board a school bus, like kids on typical sports teams do for away games.
“Look at these kids,” said Mike Hogan, a tech support specialist at IMS. “They’re not all sporty kids like the big jocks who play football and lacrosse. [Esports] gives them a chance to be on a team and to have school spirit and the pride in actually winning and being the best at something.”
The kids, decked out in their red esports team jerseys, buzzed around the room. They flocked to the Nintendo Switches and TVs against the walls. To get the club underway, Olson needed $7,000 in funding for the equipment. Through a combination of the IMS athletics budget, the state’s College and Career Readiness funding, and an $80 join fee, the team came together in about a month.
Shouting came from a group swarmed around a Super Smash Bros. match. In that game, teams of two face off against each other in head-to-head combat with a goal of knocking the other players off a floating platform.
According to Hogan, the kids have a variety of skill levels. At the first practice, he said, all the students claimed to be the best. Then, they held a tournament and actually found the best player and paired the better players with the players in need of improvement.
“What it’s really about is teaching each other how to play,” Hogan said.
Sixth-grader Jack Rubenfield, 11, only played Super Smash Bros. once in his life before joining this team, he told me, sitting cross-legged on an office chair.
“Honestly, I’m actually proud of myself because I actually knew that I was not going to be that good at Smash,” Rubenfield said, blinking behind his glasses between every word. “But now I’m actually getting a lot better.”
Rubenfield holds a reverence for video games in large part because he plays them regularly with his family.
“Video games unlock an entirely new perspective of the world,” he said. “Keep in mind, I’m taking this kind of from my dad who actually worked at a game developer company and now he works at Apple.”
The team is special to Rubenfield because he’s able to enjoy his love of video games with other kids.
“I think it’s a good idea for more people to expand their interests and be able to share what they do,” Rubenfield said.
According to sixth-grader Justin Fowler, 11, the club is a lot of fun.
“The thing is,” Fowler said, “it’s an extracurricular activity and you stay at school [to participate], so you can have this day that absolutely blows, but then you can go and play video games. And, it’s so good because you don’t have to keep bugging your mom or dad. You just, boom.” He mimed an explosion.
Eighth-grader Nick Cudley, 14, said he had to write an essay so his parents would let him join the team. Now, his mom comes to all the matches.
But is esports actually a sport?
The criteria for a sport in Cudley’s book is something “you play competitively … and where you improve” with practice. To better himself, Cudley regularly watches TenacityTV, a Twitch streamer who plays Rocket League, the game, a hybrid between soccer and driving, which Cudley specializes in on the esports team.
Likely because of the prevalence of Twitch streamers and esports tournaments, many kids said esports were a legitimate sport.
“Video games are a sport because when you play competitively you can earn money off of playing them,” eighth-grader Kyle Bennett, 13, said. “They’re hosting esports tournaments. It’s something you can play against other people across regions and the globe.”
According to Ziprecruiter, the average game streamer rakes in over $130,000 annually from playing video games online. Prize money for esports tournaments is insane, too. In 2023, the cumulative prize pool money for the Dota 2 tournament was $30.8 million.
The benefits for these middle school players aren’t monetary, but the positive changes in the kids’ behaviors and interactions, according to Olson and Hogan.
“I’ve noticed growth in the game, but I’ve always noticed growth in the players,” Hogan said. They talk to each other, they explain how to play, they work out strategies together.
“I’ve noticed growth in the game, but I’ve always noticed growth in the players.”
Additionally, they learn how to lose.
When Cudley first started playing on the team, he would slam his controller in frustration when he lost.
“I sometimes have a problem with getting angry when I lose,” he told me. “The teamwork is nice. It’s helped me.”
Luckily for me, I’m already very good at losing.
At some point in the hour-long practice, I found a controller in my hand and a screen counting down for an about-to-start Mario Kart race. As someone whose primary experience in video games was watching my brother play them growing up, I panicked.
I helplessly toggled the buttons on the controller. The eighth grader next to me whipped through the course. The number in the bottom corner of the screen read “12th.” Last place, figures.
Bennett walked up behind to spectate.
“Right trigger to drift,” Bennett said urgently as I rounded a corner.
“What? Which one is that?” I asked, frantic.
Bennett moved my pointer finger slightly down on the controller where I found an entirely new button.
“I’ve been pushing the top one,” I said.
“I know,” Bennett said, eyes not breaking from the screen. “That’s the brake.”
Oh.
The race continued.
“Left trigger! Left trigger for that, please,” Bennett coached. “There you go,” he said. Then, “When you leap into the air press ‘CR’.” A beat later, he shouted, “Right trigger!”
His instructions buoyed me. I still ended in last place, but it was nice knowing that next time I found myself in this kind of situation, I might do a little bit better thanks to Bennett. I learned from the other kids that Bennett is regarded as the best Smash player on the team. He’s helped many of the other players improve their skills, including Rubenfield.
At the end of the practice, when Olson made the kids circle up and each say something nice about one of their fellow players, Bennett shouted out Rubenfield.
“I like playing with Jack because I like teaching people new things,” he said.
Next to him, his legs tucked up on a different office chair, Rubenfield beamed.
