New to Winston Salem Christian!

E-Sports

Winston Salem Christian is proud to introduce E-Sports to our student population in the 2020-2021 school year. Students have the opportunity to compete in in tournaments to earn big scholarship dollars for their skills and talents.

WSCS is also pleased to offer a Gaming Concepts course that helps teach strategy, skills, and techniques for success.

Why are E-Sports Valuable?

Teamwork:

  • Esports encourages communication and coordination amongst student athletes. By playing games, students are able to deepen their levels of interaction and communicate more effectively, readying them for later life.

  • More opportunities to get involved in structured co-curricular activities -- According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, 84% of teenagers play video games regularly, including 92% of boys. We want to meet our students where they are and provide the appropriate structure and guidance for them to actively participate in organized teams. 

  • Social interaction -- Esports connects students of all different backgrounds unlike any other sport, club, or organization. We see Esports as an outlet for social connection, potentially bringing diverse groups of students with common interests together who otherwise would never have interacted with each other.

Education:

  • Many schools offers scholarships to help students pay for college. Nowadays, colleges offer esports programs for students, which creates a new viable path to college for those who may never have considered obtaining a higher education.

  • Esports games challenge students to use 21st century skills. The strategic thinking, problem solving, leadership, and teamwork skills endemic in multiplayer video games will transfer to real life situations. Esports games continually require students to work collaboratively to assess situations and quickly make strategic decisions to solve problems that will result in intended outcomes.

  • Gateway into STEM -- We will closely align our Esports Program to our CBC STEM Academy, allowing for exploration of jobs, careers, and other related opportunities through our STEM curriculum.

Benefits:

  • Esports is a booming industry. Many job opportunities besides being a pro player are being created. Esports teaches participants many relevant skills, such as streaming, production, programming, and management.

  • The number of collegiate Esports programs is rapidly growing. As of September 2019, the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) included over 150 member colleges and universities.  Each has an Esports program already on their campus.  For the most current list, visit the NACE Member Directory. Most of these universities also offer Esports scholarships.

Interested? Fill out our interest form!

Ongoing Research & Videos Related to Esports
Dr. Anthony Betrus (State University of New York) - TEDx Talk - The Benefits of Esports in K-12 Environments
Dr. Constance Steinkuehler (University of California - Irvine) - Spotlight - Social Interaction and Cognition in EsportsDr. Mimi Ito (University of California - Irvine) - Spotlight - Esports for 21st Century Learning & Social Interaction
Dr. Jen Jen Chen (University of California - Irvine) - Spotlight - The Long-Term Benefits of Esports

Schools that offer ESports Scholarships

https://www.ncsasports.org/college-esports-scholarships/varsity-esports