Students in the Garland ISD esports program are challenging the notion that video games are a waste of time.

Esports, the competitive playing of video games, has rapidly expanded since 2010. Every year, there are various competitions that have tens of thousands of fans, and they will award hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money to winners.

Currently, as esports continues to grow, the International Olympic Committee has left the door open for esports to become an olympic sport.

During the fall season, the district had seven teams make the playoffs. Sachse High School’s team was eliminated in the second round.

The esports program, which began back in 2019, has expanded to include teams at every middle school within GISD. Initially, the program only had teams at each of the district’s high schools.

Coordinator of Technology Applications, Jasna Aliefendic, said, there was no additional funding for procuring gaming equipment, when esports was added. She added that the district’s technology for its game development courses was capable of running the games that the different esports teams play.

“We have an amazing school district, but we didn’t have the money to raise for the program,” Aliefendic said. “I contacted our technology team, and they helped identify computers [the district already had] that would be sufficient to play the games.”

For the full story, see the Dec. 16 issue of the Sachse News.

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