Esports 4 Noobs: Starting a Scholastic Esports Program

Esports presentations at tech-oriented conferences are often packed with interesting topics like the relationship between esports and CTE programs, broadcast production minutiae, and game-specific coaching strategy. If you're new to esports, though, those ideas might sound too theoretical to you. This presentation aims to get down to brass tacks and answer questions for the new people in the room, like "Is esports a club, a class, or a sport?", "How do I convince stakeholders they should greenlight esports in my school?", "What equipment would I need to get started, and how would I get my hands on it?", "Am I supposed to coach kids in a video game that I know less about than they do?" I am hopeful that this panel will be helpful for people who want to get an esports program up off the ground, but need foundational questions answered before they can get there.