“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”
— Knute Rockne
Competition can bring out the best – and worst – in humans. Accordingly, sport has evolved to channel competition as a positive force for personal development. As the clock ticks in 2017, esports is beginning to do the same.
House League Gaming (HLG) is an organization focused on just that: bringing the traditional sports ethos to amateur League of Legends esports. eSports iQ sat down with Eric Somerville, founder of HLG, for some Q&A to learn more:
What is the story behind House League Gaming (HLG)?
House League Gaming began as I am sure a lot of things do, as a way to solve a problem we were having. The other founders of HLG are avid gamers. We have spent many hours looking to improve our skills and climb through the ranks, but we were consistently matched up with individuals who’s first instinct was to blame others or give up if the going got tough. We all noticed that this was something that in our traditional sports training was coached out of us.
We also began to notice the League of Legends players we met in real life were more often than not amazing people. It clicked that combining the organization of traditional “little league” sports with in person gaming could be a great benefit to the players performance, esports culture and even the player’s personal character development. We all have some background in running summer camps and have seen countless cases of the trans-formative possibility of a little guidance and organization in both kids and even adults.
Physical sports are a reliable form of youth development. How can esports evolve into the same?
This may not exist in the youngest generation of gamers as much as mine, but I truly think we in the industry, even as players, need to internalize just how powerful competitive gaming can be. Equally with traditional sport, there are life lessons to be learned and character development to be reaped in competing and competing well in esports.
Once we acknowledge these facts, we can no longer let these opportunities for youth development slip by. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here; we can build mirror organizations to traditional sport in order to run in-person games that develop our youth and the sport itself. We would also love to see more digital tools to encourage online coaching as Riot sets to launch practice capabilities. A beautiful expansion would be to build in some live coaching tools.
Unfortunately, toxic behavior, e.g. unsportsmanlike conduct, is a close cousin of online competitive gaming, why is that (in your opinion)?
Toxins build up in our environment. They aren’t a real problem until they reach a certain threshold. Unfortunately, despite some valiant efforts, the competitive gaming culture has normalized unsportsmanlike conduct and it has spread. This would easily occur on the field but the coaches are there to show players a better way.
Being able to see your opponent helps humanize them as well. By introducing players to how beautiful sportsmanlike competition can be we hope HLG can help remove some of the toxicity from the online environment. We think players will start to recognize HLG competitors online by they way they compete. Nothing leaves a mark like a player who is humble in victory and gracious in defeat.
How important is character development in all of this?
Esports comes with built in character development. The determination to improve, the resourcefulness of studying best practices online are just a couple of examples of character traits many gamers have. However, there are other parts of our general character development that may not seem to obviously benefit our game but are essential.
If we neglect our ability to inspire our teammates, to remain stoic in the face of difficulties or simply think we know it all, we are never going to be our best. This is true on the Rift or in the street. But this can’t all be done alone.
Please explain HLG’s business model and outlook for 2017
HLG’s business model is quite simple at the moment. It is a tried and tested method that traditional house league sports have been using for decades. Player sign ups fund the location rentals, prizes and jerseys. Our staff are largely volunteers who have been screened and vetted and are some of the most passionate gamers and mentors we’ve met. We have an eye towards seeing these types of leagues everywhere. We believe with enough interest from players, this model can work just about anywhere. 2017 will be our chance to prove that.