Thursday June 20th will be a landmark day for Varsity Sports Now.
After over a year of planning, VSN will step into the world of esports and broadcast live stream an esports tournament for the first time.
The tournament will take place at the EBREL Esports Arena in Baton Rouge and will be the culmination of a three-week summer camp hosted by the East Baton Rouge School System and will feature Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Rocket League.
“We are very excited and a bit nervous at the same time,” said Eric Richey the Founder/CEO of VSN. “It’s a completely new space for us. We have some of the brightest minds from our VSN team working on the production so that makes us feel better. But what really makes us feel good is partnering with Jeffery Harrison and the East Baton Rouge Esports League. I think it’s going to be the start of a great partnership.”
Harrison is the Director of Network Operations and Esports for the East Baton Rouge School System. He’s worked at EBRSS for 26 years and three years ago started an esports league with one pilot team.
From one pilot team to now close to 35 teams strong in his East Baton Rouge Esports League. Harrison’s goal is to have an esports team for every school in the district.
And it’s not just esports games the students are learning. Video production and cyber security are just some of the other scholastic benefits Harrison is teaching.
“We built a student ambassador program for them to start building up policies and building up game play and structuring the whole league with us,” said Harrison.
“The games are the foundation the catalyst for what we’re trying to build around. Video production is one of my major things and watching these kids grow and develop. Leadership is another thing.”
Xavier Harvey is going into the 9th grade at Liberty Magnet and is his second year of the summer camp.
“Last year I learned about esports and this year I’m learning more about it and more in-depth things,” said Harvey.
“I don’t necessarily think I have a best game I’m ok/mediocre at most games I play. But I don’t really let that get to me. Really in esports it’s about gaming and having fun. I think my strength is being a good team player because i can be a really supportive teammate in and out of the setting and I can be a really good cheerleader.”
Another experienced camper is Dexter Geter who will be going into the 9th grade at Woodlawn. Geter only started playing esports in 2021 with Rainbow Six Siege on his PC and is already hooked.
“My favorite part about the camp is the tournaments,” said Geter. “As for esports, I plan on actually doing it as a career.”
And what steps do you have to take to become a professional esports gamer?
“Play well,” said Geter.
“Two weeks ago, we had an ambassador meeting and we went over all the failures we had this year because we want to turn failures into accomplishments,” said Harrison. “Don’t let that set us back. That’s one of the big things I love teaching these kids is what can we do together to make this work.”
“I think my student ambassador program is the thing I’m most proud of. Watching those students develop into leaders. Just watching them grow from when we started to where we are now and them taking control of those meetings. It’s like running a business now and these kids are running it. Not us, the kids are running it.”
As for Thursday’s broadcast, the VSN crew might be more nervous than the gamers.
“I am not a stranger to live streams, I’m a Tik-Tok content creator myself so I have gone live,” said Harvey. “I am definitely excited. I have heard about this (broadcast) and I can’t wait to see what happens and what comes up.”
For Harrison this will be an opportunity to showcase the EBREL.
“It feels great to have partners out there and to see what these kids can bring to the table,” said Harrison. “I feel like esports is kind of like ‘it’s only video games’ I hear it all the time. But it brings so many different elements and it’s nice to see partners want to look in and see what we’re actually doing. Just having these kids come to a summer camp and then that last day, we’re going live (on VSN) and all eyes on them. They have to put on a show of a lifetime for that audience. That’s going to be awesome to watch that happen (Thursday.)”
Geter, who will be one of the favorites in the Smash Bros tournaments, put it all into perspective.
“Games are fun,” said Geter. “I mostly play games to have fun.”
The free broadcast will begin at 10:00am on Thursday. Links to the broadcast can be found on the VSN website and VSN social media platforms.