If you haven’t heard of E-sports or have little knowledge on the subject let me fill you in quickly. Electronic sports (E-sports) has been taking the nation by storm amassing a huge following and proving that if your good enough at video games it can viably become your job. Originally the e-sports field was only for the most elite gamers who spent all of their time training in games and living off tournament winnings. Recently that has been changing at a rapid rate. The following of E-sports has been growing which in turn is leading to more and more people who want a piece of the action.
Delane Parnell was born in Detroit, Michigan and was pretty much born to be an entrepreneur. At age 13 he started working at the cell phone store of a family friend. At age 16 he and two associates left the business to start there own tech startup company focused on phones. After that he went on to start a car rental company as well. Being your average boy as well as spending a lot of time working with tech, Delane had an interest and joy in playing video games. This was where his claim to fame came in. In 2017 he started his company PlayVS with the goal of bringing E-Sports to high school students.
The problem Delane was solving was that kids around the nation, and globe wanted to be part of the E-sports scene but unless you had your entire life to dedicate to practice you would never be good enough. So he created a way for high school students, who have studies and lives outside of the world of gaming, to become part of the world of E-sports. PlayVS allows high schools to start an E-sports team that students can be a part of that allows them to play, as well as compete against other high schools. Due to E-sports being entirely online there is no travel required for the leagues and there is little cost as well. You simply have to get everyone online and let the competition begin. Delane figured out all the tools that were needed to make competitive high school gaming happen were there, he just had to put the pieces together. More then 13,000 schools have made teams through PlayVS and compete during the school year. He has become a leader in the E-sports field and opened the door for many people and students to participate in the online world of competition.
I really like this idea, E-Sports gives everyone something fun to do, especially people who are too busy studying. While I have personally not been into e-spots, I have a variety of friends who are enhanced with the very idea alone.
The growth of E-sports is something that I didn’t expect to happen so fast. I think it is a really good thing for the sports community though. It allows a whole different demographic of people to compete and have fun and win competitions. With the growth of games like NBA2K and Fortnite, E-sports has started reaching everyone’s taste and is becoming as big as athletic sports. I’m also glad PlayVS gives students the opportunity to compete in E-sports instead of just professionals because there are a lot of casual video game players that have the skills and abilities to win these types of competitions.