Danville Area School District got its eSports team up and running for its first competitive season, with practices starting last week.
The intramural club team, which was announced back in November, is scheduled to have their first scrimmage against Southern Columbia at the end of the month, kicking off their six-week long season before a championship tournament.
The team will compete in a popular game called Rocket League, where players control cars playing a game similar to soccer.
Jeff Ryan, head coach of Danville’s “4GD eSports” team, said that although some of the other schools that are interested in competing for this season, such as Selinsgrove and Warrior Run, may not be ready on April 1, they’ll still be allowed to compete in the tournament at the end of the season.
He also said that the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Union will be in charge of overseeing the league for these schools. They are meant to create a code of conduct, a schedule and keep stats on the teams.
Ryan said that he likes to believe there is a place for everyone on their team. Right now they have about 26 students on their roster, but not all of them will compete.
“We’re only looking at three-person teams,” he said. “And we’re gonna probably look at fielding two teams from Danville.”
Nathan Snyder and Emma Wilson are both freshmen that plan on competing for the team. They both said that they are excited to play against other schools.
“I’ve played video games since I was like 5 years old so I thought this was perfect,” said Wilson. “I actually never played Rocket League before this, but I think it’s a lot of fun so far.”
Snyder shared a similar sentiment.
“I’ve played since like fourth grade and I’m like, pretty good,” said Snyder. “So I just thought it’d be a fun experience.”
Many other members of the club are more casual players that simply enjoy playing the games and hanging out with their friends while they do it.
Priscal Kasyanju, also a freshman at Danville who serves as the treasurer for the team, is excited to cheer on her teammates as she competes. She said she is more of a “casual gamer” and would rather use the club to meet new friends.
Many of the non-competing students also take up roles in their marketing group. Others are programming the Discord server to prevent harmful language. Ryan said there are other jobs that students are doing as well.
“So there’s a programming aspect, but there’s money management, there are all kinds of great practical things that kids can learn from this. So it goes beyond just gaming,” he said.
According to Ryan, practices are run remotely right now as the team works out a space at the school for them to operate out of.
“It’s really interesting how we were able to do it,” he said. “We all meet up in Discord and then they go off and do skills training and then we can spectate and watch them as coaches (throughout the practice).”
“But as we move forward, I’d love to see you know, as to get some fundraising and, and grants and whatnot to get a lab where we can get some nice machines and be able to play multiple games,” Ryan said.