North High’s new Esports club is more than just competitive video gaming, its where lifelong friends are made.

Hosting “Overwatch” and “League of Legends,” the brand new club has already played against high schools all over North America in the High School Star League and Youth Esports of America.

When representing Great Neck North High School, the League of Legends team placed fourth out of 70 regionally and 64th out of 700 schools nationally.

Esports may seem rather trivial because it is a sport reliant on video game skills. However, it is no laughing matter.

With large fan bases and massive tournaments, esports has become more popular now than ever, offering a million dollars to the winning team in the Overwatch League and five million dollars to the winning team in the League of Legends World Championships last year.

“Esports is different from real sports, and offers an entirely different perspective that is unique and gathering more and more attention,” said Qinglin Yang. “League of Legends is one of the most developed esports in the world, and has millions of fans all over the world.”

Many people have also begun to accept League of Legends and esports in general, with colleges now even offering scholarships to players who rank in the top of their respective servers, Yang said.

Members meet after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, helping teammates practice, discuss strategies, hold tournaments, and schedule times for competitions. Soon, esports club will also meet on Mondays when the club implements Super Smash Bros into its lineup. Along with the new esport, the rising club has more planned for its continued growth.

“I believe the best way for our club to grow is through members spreading news of how fun the club is, and how they can get involved in participating in tournaments.” said Brandan Chen, president of the esports club. “Most importantly, it is great that my advisor Mr. Meehan allows the school to run the club and is getting it out as more than just video games but rather as an actual sport.”

The club is also preparing to move into a new room in the school with access to more computers, allowing further expansion of the club. In addition to these efforts, the esports club is open to new members and games as it continues to grow.

However, there are some limitations that hinder the growth of this club.

“Usually our meetings range from ten to twenty people at times,” Chen said. “Of course, a lot more people give you more input, strategies, but the worst thing is that it can get pretty noisy in here, too many members and not enough computers.” This issue will likely be resolved after the introduction of a new room, according to Chen.

While the club may seem exclusively for experienced players, the community within is welcoming new members and adding to the school community in a unique way.

“A lot of the people in the club are friends and they bring their other friends and everyone just gets along to make a happy and loving atmosphere.” said Ely Soumikh, sophomore. “It’s how I met the majority of my own friends and I’m very thankful to the club.”

Chen agrees that the community in esports club has something special to offer to its members.

“My favorite part about this club is that we are a community,” said Chen. “Though it may be a very interesting one at that, we help each other, we rarely make fun of each other here, we are all accepting and, most importantly, we love to have fun.”

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