Fortnite Announced as High School Esports League’s Next Title
When’s the last time you were encouraged to play video games while you were still in high school? That’s precisely what lucky Fortnite players around the country are going to be doing a whole lot more of soon if one particular organization has anything to say about it.
In an interesting turn of events, the High School Esports League (HSEL) has announced a special partnership with the popular, celebrity-backed NRG eSports to bring Fortnite to high school students. Of course, we already know high school students are eating up Fortnite at every turn. What’s happening is HSEL is making the organization’s next Summer Open season all about Fortnite, with the grand prize winner and champion of the Summer League’s Fortnite tournament receiving two hours of playtime against Svennoss, the top Fortnite player in the US. Talk about incentive to get kids to take their burgeoning Esports careers seriously.
VGR spoke to the CEO of High School Esports League, Mason Mullenioux, in an exclusive interview ahead of the official announcement.
It’s interesting that at a time where PUBG and Fortnite are completely dominating the competition when it comes to battle royale games, Fortnite was chosen over PUBG to become the game that students would be able to test their skills out with. Accrding to Mullenioux, that’s exactly what they wanted.
“We decided to go with Fortnite based off what we heard from the HSEL community and what the students wanted,” Mullenioux stated. “Fortnite had far more votes than PUBG, but that’s not to say that down the line we won’t also add PUBG.” That’s great news if you’re not so sure you can hack it in Fortnite, but you’re getting your chicken dinners on the regular. They are two very different titles, after all. “The popularity of the game helped to drive this decision, but ultimately the HSEL community spoke,” said Mullenioux.
Any high school students interested in participating in HSEL’s Summer Open League event simply need to register and then be verified through the HSEL system, explains Mullenioux. If you have no current team at your high school and want to be a part of the organization, you can even join up as a “Free Agent.”
“We just lowered the barrier to entry for our Summer Open and introduced the first-ever ‘Free Agent’ team system at the high school level,” says Mullenioux. “The Free Agent team system expands existing team limitation and lets students create teams with friends from any high school across North America.” So if your school is one that prioritizes anything else in the entire world over excelling at Esports, your hopes and dreams certainly don’t need to be dashed.
There could be more, different games on the way as well, but that really depends on whether or not colleges are offering scholarships for certain games. So if you’re wanting to see games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s new Blackout mode up for consideration, make your voice heard and see if colleges start opening up to it when it releases. You never know what might happen.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in (and you’re still in high school, of course) there isn’t really a barrier for entry. Just be yourself, and be interested in gaming.
“That’s the beauty of Esports, it’s all inclusive,” Mullenioux explained during our interview. “Obviously, the shared traits of those that most commonly succeed are similar to other sports – a strong work ethic, desire to practice and train, etc. – however, there’s no barrier to entry… everyone is welcome!
There are plenty of reasons to get involved for students looking to pursue a career in Esports, so convincing kids isn’t so much of an issue. One would think that the parents would be the obstacle here. With such fervor from the mainstream media about Fortnite and how it’s driving parents crazy, it would be understood if potential student players get a little pushback their parents. Oddly enough, that doesn’t seem to be a barrier for entry for fledgling Esports stars. It’s just the opposite, explained Mullenioux, stating that there’s a ton of “enthusiasm and support” behind the kids’ scholarships.
“Parents are thrilled that their child is involved and has found something that they enjoy doing at school.” And that’s something you can’t say very often, at least in this author’s experience throughout high school.
Fortnite has been changing the game left and right, it seems. First with battle royale, now with parents greenlighting their kids going to school to play video games for a living and potentially earn a scholarship to do so. What a time to be alive.
To learn more about HSEL’s Summer Open League event, check out the official website here.