Gamers Transcend the Boundaries of Learning through Rocket League
My personal history with gaming is marked by many hours spent playing single-player role-playing games, offline sports franchises, and computer simulation and strategy games, but the experiences that have always stuck with me the most have been those times in-game that I’ve spent with my friends. There’s nothing quite like coming together with others to accomplish a goal, complete a quest, or face-off against another team in a game like Rocket League, and this experience is exactly what Genesis: Pathways to Success offered this week at Game ON: Esports Camp hosted at Milan Middle School.
Rocket League is a competitive sports game that pits teams of players driving cars against each other in a soccer match. The rules are very similar to soccer, and each team of players must strategize by designating strikers and goalies to both attack the other team’s goal and defend their own. The strategic opportunities and collaborative demands of Rocket League make it as useful as basketball, soccer, and other sports for instilling sportsmanship and cultivating fellowship within its teams of players. Throughout the course of the three days, campers were separated into teams and learned how to play Rocket League, competed in team challenges against bots, and ultimately played against each other in a final tournament to determine a Grand Champion! Communication and fellowship are valuable for any team exercise and can apply to sporting competitions of any kind, but they also are key in individual life beyond school and extracurriculars.
Robert Green, a volunteer and Head Coach for South Ripley High School’s Esports League, was at the forefront of teaching strategy and encouraging collaboration during the camp. In an interview, he was quick to point out the value of teamwork, communication, and sportsmanship in employability and relationships. When asked to highlight one skill in particular, he said, “Effective communication. When [these kids] get older and start looking for jobs, and at the high school level and in networking, knowing how to carry yourself and how to communicate with other people is important. This game teaches them sportsmanship, how to win and lose without being negative, and how to work together.”
While the focus of camp was on Rocket League, campers participated in other games and competitions not on a screen, such as blindfolded team obstacle courses, catapult challenges, and the floor is lava. Each of these worked in collaboration with their efforts in game to instill, and make more tangible, the problem-solving, communication, and collaborative skills that campers had been working on. A key element in these intangible skills was also cultivating healthy habits around gaming. Students learned the value of nutrition, exercise, and sleep, and the importance of these for performance in school, physical activity, mood, and yes, gaming!
Daryl Comer, a 6th-grader from Jac-Cen-Del and avid gamer, highlighted, “My favorite part was working as a team to do the mini-challenges outside of the game. In Rocket League, they helped us with communication and teamwork,” when asked about his favorite aspect of camp.
Genesis: Pathways to Success would like to thank Milan Middle School for being a welcoming and gracious host for Game ON: Esports Camp, and for exposing students to collaborative learning while opening pathways for success. The gamers will return in the summer of 2024.
