League of Legends sport comes to S-MHS

Staples-Motley students are entering the battle arena with their champions, marksmen, summoners, assassins, mages, bruisers, tanks, totems and minions.

In the League of Legends video game, teams of five players command their units to follow the arena pathways to destroy the other team’s base.

The game has inspired a worldwide following and is now a competitive sport in which high school teams play against each other. A group of Staples-Motley High School students have started a team at the school

“Ever since I was little I’ve been a gamer,” said Dominic Simon, one of the student organizers who helped the game get started at the here.

There are other competitive video games, generically speaking like eSports, but League of Legends is the best because of the in-depth game play and all the avid followers. “It’s like a huge family,” Simon said.

The new players at Staples-Motley will run their game through the High School Starleague, a safe, secure host which keeps competition just between high schools.

In spite of the reputation of video games being the refuge of loners, this one has a strong social component to it.

“League of Legends is a great community, I love the team aspect of it,” said Simon.

To play the game, communication between the five teammates is critically important. Like in any team sport, Simon said it’s very helpful to get to know your teammates and learn how they like to play.

“It’s so team-based, you’re always talking while in the game, you have to get to know the people beside you,” said Simon.

If a person plays the game alone online, they communicate remotely with their five teammates. Simon said he likes the high school league aspect of the five teammates sitting together, in the same room, so they can discuss strategy live while they are playing.

Since the team at Staples-Motley is new, they’ll start playing internally to gain experience. Players can build and strengthen their own personal team as they play more, so an inexperienced team wouldn’t have a chance against a top team.

The Staples-Motley teams hope to scrimmage Wadena-DC sometime this year, as Wadena-DC already has a high school team. By next year S-M hopes to join the high school league.

Only a few of the Staples-Motley players have experience with the game, but there’s a lot of interest in trying out. “Most of the people I talked to are super into it,” said Simon.

That includes Principal Mike Schmidt, who said the students have done everything right in getting the league started at the school. “It was brought to us by the students in an incredible way,” said Schmidt.

The students also decided that the league will follow the accountability guidelines of the Minnesota State High School League, meaning, students must maintain good grades and show good behavior to keep playing with the team. “We don’t want anyone playing if they’re falling behind in school and failing classes,” said Simon.

As a popular extra-curricular activity, Schmidt compared it to the trap shooting league that was recently started and has taken off at the school.