Vancouver’s GameSeta Esports has entered into a partnership with BC School Sports (BCSS) the governing body for school sport and activities in BC to begin the rollout of esports in high schools throughout the province.
GameSeta, an award-winning online gaming provider, will work directly with the BCSS to introduce esports into high schools beginning this fall, with an initial rollout across BCSS member schools.
An initial exploratory trial competition between schools will take place on the GameSeta online platform, games will be played before an online audience streamed live on Twitch.
“Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic schools are looking to provide participation opportunities for high school students, and esports is a great option,” said Tawanda Masawi, CEO & Co-founder of GameSeta Esports. “Our value proposition continues to strengthen during COVID-19, which explains our oversubscribed waitlist from schools across provinces in Canada” he added.
Jordan Abney, BCSS Executive Director noted “We are thrilled to partner with a BC-based company in GameSeta. Esports is a new frontier for BCSS but credit to our Board of Directors who felt it was important to explore every option on how to engage students with their school. There is a mountain of evidence to suggest good things happen to youth when there is a sense of
belonging, responsibility and community in their school. If we can bring that to students who wouldn’t normally participate in school sport, then that is a great thing for our member schools.”
Abney continued that “League of Legends is the most widely played game in the world, and our membership made it clear this was the preferred choice. We appreciate it’s a 5v5 team-based strategy game will offer many of the same teaching and growth opportunities that any traditional team sport would. We know GameSeta will be a great partner and together we will offer a great experience for our students.”
“We’re excited to partner with the BCSS to introduce esports in high schools provincewide” said Rana Taj, President & Co-founder of GameSeta Esports. Taj noted with this partnership and our unique technology, Canada will have its first scalable high school esports solution that priorities Canadian student data and privacy protections”
Nearly 200 colleges in the United States and Canada are actively recruiting and offer scholarships for esports. The University of Toronto has become the first university in Canada to offer an eSports scholarship to students. Additionally, companies within the esports industry are looking to hire those with experience across multiple aspects of gaming.
Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash