The dawn of the CMS esports era
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools launched its new varsity esports and STEM league this fall, where students battle it out under the 'Wednesday Night Lights.' Here's what it's like to watch the action.
This article was published in The Charlotte Ledger e-newsletter on November 7, 2022. Find out more and sign up for free here.
‘Wednesday Night Lights’: Not convinced esports deserve the same attention as football or swimming? Watching CMS teams battle in their first matchups might change your mind.
Even for video game novices, watching teens from different high schools compete in fast-paced playing is entertaining. More than 500 CMS students signed up to play in the inaugural league, and about 100 were picked to play at the varsity, junior varsity and club level for their schools.
by Cristina Bolling
A piece of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools history unfolded Wednesday night, as an entirely new athletic program was on display for the first time — one without sweaty uniforms or crowded bleachers.
The CMS Varsity esports and STEM League kicked off their preseason games on the livestream platform Twitch — a league that was created out of a partnership among Stiegler EdTech, Carolina Esports Hub and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, along with CMS.
On Wednesday night, teams from 12 different CMS high schools battled it out in the game Rocket League (imagine a game of soccer being played by sports cars instead of humans), and it was hard not to be fascinated — perhaps not by the students’ technical skills, but because how often do you get to witness the debut of a sport?
The night also included a competition by the schools’ STEM teams to see who could design the best team jersey and logo using computer design technology.
If you’d like to see last Wednesday night’s competitions — or any of the Wednesday night competitions as the season unfolds — you can watch them on the YTAC Nation Twitch Channel. (Wednesday’s six games lasted a total of 3 ½ hours, so you’ll need to use the navigation bar at the bottom to scroll for the games you want to watch.)
Here are some observations and lessons we learned by watching — and proof that you don’t need to be a gamer to follow and enjoy the games.
🎮 Toss any preconceived notions about which schools do best in athletics out the window — esports is a different animal.
With most traditional sports, a team from a brand-new school like Palisades High School wouldn’t stand a chance against a large and established athletic program like Providence High School. But on Wednesday, Palisades High, which just opened in August, cleaned Providence’s clock, winning 3 of 4 matches.
Palisades had esports team members who had been playing together since before the league was announced, so they’d already jelled as a team and were able to work together better to score more points. (I know this because the commentators talked about the backgrounds of the teams during the games. You can’t hear the players talk during the game — or even learn their real names. Only their screen names are shown during play — names like “NUTELLA7GOD” and “JULCOP12.”)
🎮 The commentating is legit — and one of the commentators Wednesday was a Charlotte city councilman. You wouldn’t know just by listening to the games that this was esports. The commentators sound like pro football or soccer talking heads, and they provide both color and play-by-play as the games unfold. The commentating has all the features of watching professional sports — sports jargon, yelling during close plays and team background information mixed in.
The two lead commentators on the YTAC Nation Twitch stream introduced themselves at the beginning of the night by their screen names — “Bearlights” and “Discounts.” (I wished they’d told us their real names and a little about themselves.) Other commentators dropped in during the night.
The commentating team included Charlotte city councilman Tariq Bokhari. (Fun fact: his screen name is “Overlord.”) Bokhari was part of the team that worked to create the CMS esports league, and he was an essential part of the commentating team Wednesday, weaving in fun facts about the high schools like what year they opened and notable alumni.
Commentators went nuts as South Mecklenburg’s team sank the ball into Hough’s net in the final second of their second match, tying the game at 3-3 and sending them into overtime.
“It bounces back to the net — and now South Meck scores!”
“Unbelievable! It’s crazy! That never should have happened in the first place!”
“Incredible punch!”
“I’m shaking my head with Hough — you didn’t have to touch it.”
“That’s why you play until the clock is completely dead. Even though it says zero, that doesn’t mean it’s over, [as] we’ve said before. Wow, it’s unbelievable what just happened!”
🎮 The league is about more than esports — STEM is also a major component. Esports may be what draws more eyeballs to the broadcasts — there were 1,020 views on the event on YTAC Nation Twitch channel as of Sunday morning — but each school also has a STEM team, which will have challenges each week that are judged between esports games.
The STEM part of Wednesday night’s competition included a challenge to see who could design the best team logo and jersey. One of the judges for that competition was Jake Burns, chief commercial officer at Tepper Sports & Entertainment.
🎮 Commentators clearly knew there were some dubious audience members — and they worked to win them over.
Early in the evening, Bokhari was hitting hard the point that yes, this was a real sport, and the ways in which esports provide kids with many of the same elements that traditional sports provide.
“For folks out there that are tuning in for the first time and wondering, ‘Uh, what is this? Is this for real?’ This has a lot of the same aspects of regular, physical, traditional varsity sports: communication, teamwork, practice, leadership,” Bokhari said. “All key elements that you have to learn as you get better and better at this.”
He drove the point home again later in the broadcast: “For a lot of the parents who might be tuning in saying ‘video games? What’s that about?’ Number one, your kids don’t get to play unless they do well in school, pass the tests and have your permission to play. Another big thing is … they’re sitting there and they’re learning how to communicate. … The bad teams don’t communicate at all. The good teams are communicating a little bit. … The great teams are communicating what’s about to happen.”
Want to watch? Check out the CMS varsity esports games for free on https://www.twitch.tv/ytacnation, starting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights through the fall semester, which ends Jan. 24. (You don’t have to watch them live — you can watch the recorded games afterward on the same link.) You can also check out a 1 1/2-minute highlight reel of Wednesday night’s games on this YouTube link.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project