The Calgary YMCA’s goal of providing healthy competitive eSports options for youth has taken a big step towards a higher level of competition, with the launch of in-person tournaments starting this month.
Youth between eight and 17 years old are being invited to take part in Mario Cart and Super Smash Bros. tournaments throughout the latter half of January and throughout February at the Rocky Ridge and Brookfield Residential YMCAs.
The introduction of in-person tournament play followed a successful phase one pilot eSports program at the YMCA, which saw participants take part in virtual tournaments and build a community around chatting on the popular gaming social media site Discord.
“We’re all eager to build a physical connection to esports. Until now, everything has been remote and online. Having that physical element will be super grounding and a pinnacle point for our program,” said Arron Pitre, Esports Supervisor with the Calgary YMCA.
“A community member reached out to me during our Friday hangout to say that, in the first tournament, he made a friend. Now, they hang out and play games together. It’s awesome to see new relationships like this in our community.”
Tanya Connelly-Scott, Vice President of Experience at YMCA Calgary said that a really big part of the eSports program that separates it from youth gaming on their own or with friends, is the addition of having adult mentors to provide a safe and healthy gaming environment—something she called a “really big part” of the program.
That initial phase had more than 60 participants out of a cap of 75, with the intent to eventually expand that capacity to hundreds of youth across most of the YMCA locations in Calgary.
Phase three of the program is set to introduce competitive leagues for youth gamers later this year, featuring some of the games that are currently being competed on at the collegiate and university level.
“Our intention is to launch that as part of our spring program offering. So those are programs that will run from April until June,” said Pitre.
“The way that we’ll do that is kind of like your more traditional sports like basketball and soccer. Kids will have a practice day where they’ll come in, they’ll play, they’ll have a coach, they’ll get tips and tricks, and then there’s a game days during the week.”
The expansion of the pilot program was made possible in part by a $40,000 YMCA Canada Innovation grant.
“We were really honoured that YMCA Canada sees the value and the potential in this program. With all our programs, we want them to be financially self-sustaining, but as you’re going through a pilot project it takes time to get there,” said Pitre.
“This money just allows us to have that, that time to do this with a lot of thought and intention behind it, to build it into a self-sustaining program.”
Youth programs could lead to post-secondary competitive play and beyond
Bow Valley College, which has work underway to create Western Canada’s largest eSports arena, and just launched a first-of-its-kind eSports Management Program, has been working in collaboration with the YMCA on the eSports pilot.
“We’ve been in contact with [the Calgary YMCA], and trying to position our programming. We’re exploring the possibility of hosting some of their summer programs for students here at our eSports arena that we’re going to be opening up,” said Eddie Sergeant, Associate Dean, Chiu School of Business at Bow Valley College.
“If they’re finding success there, we’re looking to help create a smooth transition into the post-secondary world for those students who might want to continue on competitively gaming.”
The games selected for the YMCA’s eSports programming, said Connelly-Scott, were selected by the participants themselves.
“Obviously, we stuck with the rating of EA for everyone—making sure that they’re appropriate. But what we also did is we went out, we talked to the youth, and we said, ‘what games are you playing? and what games would you like to see as part of our program?'” she said.
“The youth voice is a very important component of what we do at the Y.”
Among the games selected are those in the upcoming tournaments, like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., but also titles that are incredibly popular in the eSports world like Rocket League.
Sergeant said that while Bow Valley College hasn’t finalized the titles they will be using at their level of competitive play, having youth already competing on potential titles opened up opportunities for those same youth once they get older.
“We’re still trying to feel that out what titles are going to be the ones that we gravitate towards when we do develop our competitive teams, but I do think that it’s kind of foreshadowing where we see the interest at the high school level,” Sergeant said.
He likened the program at the YMCA to youth hockey in Canada, saying that it was those programs that feed into higher-level competitive play.
Connelly-Scott said that the opportunities for youth that take part in the YMCA’s eSport program extended to various down-the-road benefits like scholarships and even careers.
“Part of this is that we want to choose games that lead to other things, and other opportunities. But I think too, that’s part of the reason the kids play them too,” she said.
For some of the eventual YMCA players who want to get a jump on a paid career in eSports, Sergeant said they will be working towards a dual-credit program that offers high-school-aged youth Alberta high school credits and college credits at the same time.
For more information on the YMCA’s upcoming eSports tournaments, and on league play, see www.ymcacalgary.org/esports.
