Gameworks and HSEL Team Up to Bring Esports to US High Schools
Today we learned that GameWorks is going to be partnering with the High School Esports League (HSEL) to bring esports to American High Schools.
The HSEL is the largest competitive gaming organization for high schools and education facilities in North America. The goal is to bring esports available to every student as a legit varsity-level high school sport in the United States.
What Was Agreed Upon
Effective immediately, GameWorks’ seven venues will be offering benefits to HSEL members at their high-tech esports lounges. This includes free practice time for teams and individuals at specified times (weekdays and weekends).
Students participating in an HSEL event
In addition, space will be given for competition, and exclusive food, drinks, and time play offers. This is to emphasize players’ studies, while also working on improving their skills for competition. That’s the important part for me. Students who use this as an excuse to play games and not study are going to do esports a disservice.
I do hope that this partnership winds up seeing more GameWorks buildings cropping up around the nation. But as we also learned, there is an HSEL tournament on the way for more than just GameWorks cities.
HSEL Winter Open
This partnership does coincide with the registration for the HSEL Winter Open esports tournament. This is available to all North American high school students, whether or not they’re a part of an HSEL-partnered school or not.
What’s more, players can compete at an HSEL-approved GameWorks location, their schools, or even from home. Further information can be found at this link.
Mason Mullenioux, co-founder and CEO of High School Esports League discussed this partnership:
“Our new partnership with GameWorks is a natural fit for our members as students now have access to premium esports lounges, even on weekends, where they can practice and compete. The new HSEL-approved GameWorks locations are fully featured with everything our players need to succeed in upcoming tournaments, such as the HSEL Winter Open, which is now open for registration to all North American high school students, or when they just want to participate in casual matches with friends. GameWorks offers our members a comfortable, robust environment where they can hone their competitive gaming skills and forge greater bonds with their peers while still focusing on their studies.”
What I’d love to know is how they will help the students focus on their studies, because that is incredibly important to the future of students. The HSEL has over 60,000 participating students across more than 2,100 schools, so it’s definitely on the rise. That tells me they are at least seeing success.
Having a massive place to play at in a variety of major cities is a nice addition to the HSEL system. This will help these players come together without their school having to fund new space to play at on campus. That would no doubt be expensive and time-consuming. So, kudos to them for this partnership.
HSEL approved GameWorks locations can be found in such cities as Denver, CO, Seattle, WA, Las Vegas, NV. You can find the HSEL approved locations in this link.
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