Mountain View Matters – Esports
I recently had an opportunity to draft an article for our divisional Mountain View Matters series on the topic of esports. This monthly series is one of the outreach tools our division has to speak about topics impacting the students and staff we represent. The articles are prepared by school principals, coordinators, or senior admin and are published both online through our networks as well as in the local newspapers servicing our area.
The article is now LIVE on our website and available HERE. I will also include it below.
A tour of many buildings within Mountain View School Division over lunch hours and after school will see students with a Nintendo Switch in hand or huddled in front of a laptop. The rooms buzz with excitement as students discuss strategy and celebrate successes. These students are part of the quickly growing esports community in Manitoba schools. Esports – electronic sports – see students compete virtually through a variety of games that cycle through seasons in a similar fashion to the schedules of physical athletics. The formal presence of esports in Manitoba began in 2018 with the Manitoba High School eSports Association. An expansion to include grades six through eight was made in 2019 with Middle Years Esport Manitoba. These two organizations were then amalgamated in 2022 and are branded as MSEA or Manitoba School Esports Association, which currently represents 57 schools from 17 school divisions across the province. In addition to virtual and in-person league events, the MSEA also offers an extensive professional development network for educators. Through this network, Manitoba schools are identified as a leader in the field of esports with educators from the province founding and serving on the national body, Esport Canada.
Within the school division, there are teams competing via MSEA at the Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School, Mackenzie Middle School, and Ochre River School. We also have an elementary network operating divisionally in Ecole Macneill, Smith-Jackson Ukrainian Bilingual School, and Lt. Colonel Barker V.C. School. While the MSEA-affiliated teams cycle through a variety of gaming seasons, our elementary teams are centered on the Minecraft EDU platform that is available to all K-12 students in MVSD. Working as a team, student participation sees development of digital literacy skills, global competencies, social emotional learning, and sportsmanship. “It is more than just play. The planning of time, teamwork, the sharing, learning, solving problems, and innovating solutions – these skills translate into their everyday lives too,” shared esports supervisor Judith Cooper, from Ecole Macneill. In addition to learning and navigating the type of game, students also receive education surrounding community guidelines – how to conduct themselves in an online space. There is also ongoing dialogue surrounding digital wellbeing, safety, and ethics. The model set up within the division has served as an example for neighbouring school divisions with our staff facilitating provincial professional development sessions via MTS PD Day in October and the BYTE Conference in February.
This leadership has extended to our students with Mackenzie Middle School finishing their inaugural season as provincial champions in the 2022/23 Rocket League season, ranking in the top 5 of Western Canada. More recently, Ecole Macneill competed at the provincial level to design an “escape room” in Minecraft with student creations placing second, third, and seventh in the province. These students will move on to compete against Ontario students in the spring of 2024. Within our own divisional network, the inaugural Elementary Esports Divisionals was hosted at Lt. Colonel Barker V.C. School on March 13th. Seven teams from three elementary schools competed within Minecraft to design and construct their “dream playgrounds.” Lt. Colonel Barker V.C. School team, “Girlie Pops,” took first place with technical support, judging, and event emcee positions being facilitated by MSEA students from Ochre River School and Mackenzie Middle School.
The inclusion of esports not only provides an opportunity to develop a plethora of digital literacy and intra- and interpersonal skills, it provides a programming option that can reach students who may not be involved in other traditional school activities. We hope the 2024/25 school year will grow both our MSEA and elementary esports presence.