EsportsKids' Story
The idea behind EsportsKids was created in 2016, when I was 9-years old. I asked my Dad, "Why are there only esports tournaments for older kids, Dad?" He looked at me and said, “Well, um, I am not really sure… that is a great idea.” And EsportsKids was born.
Kids love and play video games more than anybody. Yet, there are few if any opportunities for elementary school kids to have a positive venue to compete with friends online or in person. Enter EsportsKids!
Our first tournament, in 2016
With so many kids playing video games today, there is a real responsibility and opportunity for parents to steer children towards the most positive aspects of this activity. This is why Esports Kids was created.
We founded our organization with an emphasis on giving back to our community. Our motto was literally, "Where kids game on and give back." We aimed to give 51% of our revenue to our local food bank, the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. We are proud to say that, across the span of our three tournaments, we raised and donated over $3,000.00 to the food bank.
We didn’t ask gamers to bring their own consoles; we supplied these through donations from Nintendo and through console loans from our community of gamers. Participants just had to pay a small entry fee, often $20, and show up to the event site, ready to have some fun and maybe win some prizes.
We featured a new and different game at each event and aimed to have 1-2 live in-person tournaments per year. The biggest hurdle was finding a venue to lend their space to our cause. It turns out that local elementary schools are often very open to this idea (shout out to St. John Notre Dame in Folsom, CA).
The focus was always on FUN, so you didn't need to train for the event. Even if you had never played the game, you could just show up and play it for the first-time-ever on the day of the event. That said, you were welcome and encouraged to practice in advance if you wanted to go for the gold!
Our first-ever tournament in May 2016 focused on a 3v3 Rocket League Xbox One tournament. Our second event on December 10th, 2016 featured Mario Kart 8 on the WiiU. Our third event featured two games: Nintendo Super Smash Bros on WiiU and the high-energy game #IDARB on Xbox One in September 2017. We were also considering tournaments for Minecraft Hunger Games Edition, Plants vs. Zombies, Splatoon, and Toto Temple Deluxe.
Oh did someone say prizes? My Dad worked with a lot of gaming publishers for his job and they were very generous with gifting Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch games for a raffle that added a special element to each tournament (shout out to Ronnie2K and the team at NBA2K). And, of course, the winners of the tournament, often a team of 3, took him a very special prize, such as a new gaming console or GameStop gift card.
With the help of about a dozen volunteers, we are proud to say that grew from 24 kids at our first event, to 46 at Esports Kids 2 and a whopping 66 kids at Esports Kids 3.
