In Bow High School’s library, students are glued to gaming after school as they practice and train for esports competitions. They duke it out in Super Smash Bros. — a multiplayer fighting game where Nintendo characters go head-to-head until one has lost all lives — and practice new combos and tactics, scout opponents and enjoy playing their favorite games in a competitive setting.

The Falcons’ esports team is gearing up to compete in the second ever NHIAA Super Smash Bros. tournament in the spring. Esports are a new sport, not just in New Hampshire but globally too, and some debate if they should be part of athletic programs and dismiss the competitive aspects of playing video games.

The Falcons have had an esports team for a few years now, and they compete with teams across the country. They explained what esports look like in practice and how they’re preparing.

But first, what is “esports?” How do they work?

Global tournaments for different esports have popped up around the world. The Internet and the emergence of online video and live streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch only accelerated the growing fan base of esports, allowing people across the globe to watch competitions and their favorite athletes, wherever and whenever.

According to Statista, the global esports market is expected to grow from $2.4 billion in 2024 to over $10 billion by 2032. The viewership of esports is also steadily increasing across the board and is estimated to reach 640.8 million people by 2025.

Moreover, professional esports players are winning big money through streaming, sponsorships, and prize pools from competitions— totaling over $15 million — which has allowed some to become full-time professionals.

“I think esports has really grown hugely in these past few years, and I think it’s only going to continue to grow because it’s so accessible and it’s fun, it’s all skill-based. You don’t need to be physically fit or anything to do it. You just have to practice. And I think it’s really easy to watch too,” said Bow’s junior Super Smash Bros. player, Matthew Kropp. “You don’t have to pay anything. You can boot up a Twitch stream or something, and then you can see it for free. I think its accessibility is really what’s snowballed its growth so much.”

The debate over whether video game competitions are a “sport” has been fierce since the start. A study by Frontiers in Sports and Living in the National Library of Medicine claims esports are sports because they form organized teams, there is an element of competition and professional pathways, and players put in hours of training and refine skills for competitive success.

At Bow High School, the esports team competes through software PlayVS against schools across the eastern seaboard, from Canada down to Florida. Coached by Samuel Dixon, the school’s librarian, and Allan Sheehy, a math teacher, the pair started esports four years ago as kids returned to school post-pandemic.

Dixon acts as a coach and manager, organizing matches, personnel, logistics and other details, while Sheehy is the gamer-guy who coaches the players on tactics and technical aspects of their game. Together, they have held conferences and presentations across the state on the positive impacts of esports and are helping start programs at other schools.

“I love to play them, but I’m terrible at them, so my ability to actually coach them on how to play is limited,” said Dixon. “Allan, though, he’s incredible. He knows how to play a lot of these games, and he’s very good with Mario Kart.’”

But, like any sport, it’s not just technical but also mental, and the coaches help guide students to learn emotional intelligence while facing challenges in-game.

“I try to explain to them, when someone beats us, you guys need to focus on what that guy did to beat us and don’t be grumpy or sad that there was someone better than us. Focus on what they did to beat us and then get better next time,” Sheehy added.

PlayVS is a nationwide esports software company that enables middle and high schools to compete in over 13 different games with as many teams as they can muster on-campus or virtually. PlayVS’s website explains that it enables a structured and coached experience for players.

Many of Bow’s teams have made the playoffs in various games, and they have even had some players go on to play in college programs. Currently more than 250 accredited universities offer varsity esports programs in the United States. According to scholarship.com, the total pool of college scholarship money for esports players, or athletes, doubled during the 2020/2021 academic year from $8 million to $16 million.

Bow has competitive teams for Super Smash Bros., Splatoon 3, Fortnite and Mario Kart. One of their best Super Smash teams, made up of Matthew Kropp, junior Carter Monroe, and senior Mathias Hanson, is competing in PlayVS — where they’re going to make playoffs and are ranked 18th in the country out of 137 participating teams — and will be in the NHIAA tournament in the spring.

They each have different avatars (mains) that they play with, different play styles, and hone their tactics through practice to defeat the other team’s opponents in one-on-one battles. They scout opponents’ play styles, and their own main’s best tactics and learn how the mathematics and game design play into their match.

“We’ve been like looking at the enemy team and how I am playing who they play, and we’ve been practicing just our mains against each other and also against some of the characters that they’ll be playing to see who will be the best fit for each battle,” said Kropp.

They were not all friends before joining esports, but now they’ve grown together and formed part of a tight-knit squad that challenges each other to get better.

“I, personally, like how the teamwork is. In esports, like this game, there’s not as much teamwork, but what you contribute helps your team win. I’ll be playing against another person. Those two won’t be helping me, but how we do together is how we win,” Monroe said.

Last year, they brought home the state’s second-place plaque from the first NHIAA-sanctioned official SSB tournament and are proud of their achievement — although it’s hidden above a vending machine in the hallway. They hope to bring another one home and are trying to help out the other three SSB squads.

“We interact with the other teams as well, I’ve been working with (another) team,” said Hanson. “Working on different key binds for them to use, how to do certain attacks, show them the different radiuses and stuff overall, just trying to teach the other people how to play the game as well.”

Coach Dixon explained that the esports team is a space for everyone, even athletes in other sports, to come together and he has seen how it positively impacts students.

“I’ve seen some amazing kids who really have had no opportunity for structure or leadership skills, just kind of shine,” he said. “We had one kid who didn’t do any work in classes, and just was kind of like floating through school without any direction. He started to do esports, and he became this incredible leader in Mario Kart.”

Some of the benefits Dixon listed are teamwork, reduced costs in comparison to other athletic programs, communication and hand-eye coordination improvement, among other things.

“There’s a lot of kids who don’t want to play a traditional sport there. Maybe they’re a little nerdier, maybe they’re a little bit quieter, maybe they struggle with the physical side of things,” he said. “But esports allows them to make things happen. Find those connections.”

Similarly, PlayVS lists social-emotional learning, student engagement, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) skill growth, socialization, scholarship opportunities and scholastic improvement as the biggest benefits of esports.

“(Parents) have been very thankful. They’re just so happy that their kids are engaged. They’re learning and they’re trying and they’re doing, because I think, myself as a parent, I want my kids to be engaged and try new experiences and to do things,” said Dixon.

What does esports look like in New Hampshire?

The NHIAA has designated two games for official tournaments hosted at SNHU’s Esports Arena. The first tournament will take place on Dec. 14 for Rocket League on PC (desktop computer) but the format is yet to be formalized as schools are still registering.

The second tournament will be for a different game on a different console. Played on the Nintendo Switch, the Super Smash Bros. tournament will be held in the function room of SNHU’s dining hall in the spring.

“We got runner-up last year, and it was extremely close. It was like 2-1, from the three sets we played. And I think this year, like we’ve grown so much as a team, and with our play styles, I think we’re going to be able to take home first place,” said Bow’s Kropp.

Currently, 16 schools are registered for Rocket League– including John Stark and Pembroke — and for Super Smash Bros. there are 19 registered schools, in which Bow will compete alongside the Generals and Spartans.

“It’s really taking the specific group of kids from our school and helping them feel confident and feel like they belong to the school, make them feel invested in the school. And it’s really amazing,” said Sheehy.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com