As esports gains a popular reputation within the country’s schools, local Greene County schools, such as Carmichaels Area School District, decided to see what the talk is all about. With their own esports team, Carmichaels Area School District hosted their second annual Minecraft Tournament on Friday Jan. 21.
Due to the decline in interest in reading and schools becoming more digitalized, school libraries all over the country, and even in the county, are being shut down. To avoid losing the library, Cassie Menhart, the librarian for Carmichaels Area Junior and Senior High Schools, searched for ways to keep the library vibrant and active. However, just when it seemed like there were no more ideas, a Carmichaels Area Senior High student brought the idea of an esports team to Menhart.
“I knew nothing about gaming. I’m the librarian that likes to read,” Menhart said. “Being the librarian, I wanted to have another thing available to our students, so I jump on it. We fundraised a little bit and we were able to buy six gaming computers and an Xbox for the library.”
With their new equipment, supervision from Menhart and a team of around 20 students, the high schoolers can compete against other high schools all over the country. Since the high school students are older, they are able to compete with games such as Call of Duty, which is rated for mature audiences.
“[However,] being the librarian for the middle and high school, middle schoolers are coming into the library and seeing this gaming equipment and wanting to participate somehow,” Menhart said. “That goes into why we had a Minecraft tournament.”
The Minecraft tournament, which was hosted and organized by Menhart’s esports team captains, had 16 students sign up with only nine competing. Minecraft is a three-dimensional game for all ages that pushes players to get a wide variety of achievements through exploring, which made the competition possible.
The esports captains drew a double elimination bracket, which left room for one winner. Since the students wanted something they could use instead of a trophy, the first-place winner won a $15 Dairy Queen gift card, and second place won a $5 Dairy Queen gift card. Later in the future, Menhart says she would like to get a trophy that can travel from one winner to the next.
As for the esports team, Menhart encouraged those who have looked down on esports to reconsider their views.
“Being a teacher that’s older in age, a lot of people don’t give esports and gaming enough credit. These young people can gain a lot of career experience and college experience from participating in such a thing,” Menhart said. “It’s a good thing.”