GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — West Catholic Freshman Jonathan Jensen has heard all the stereotypes about gaming and he's not buying them.
"I always try and inform them, like you're entitled to your own opinion, but it's also a good place for people to go after school. It's a lot of fun and it has a big sense of community," said Jensen.
That sense of community has grown in recent years as gamers have started competing.
"eSports is any video game played competitively," said Adam Antor the eSports director at Aquinas College.
And if you don't think eSports are that popular yet, think again.
"More people watched the League of Legends world finals than watched the Super Bowl last year....so hundreds of millions of people watch eSports," said Antor.
Some high schools in West Michigan are now embracing the trend. Jensen is part of West Catholic High School's official eSports club.
"It's fun to play with my friends and beat them," said Jensen.
West Catholic isn't the only local school jumping on the eSports train. Lowell, East Grand Rapids and East Kentwood all have eSports clubs and more are coming.
"Some of the schools I've talked to that want to launch programs next fall are Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Jenison has looked into it, Sparta, Rockford, Godfrey Lee. So some really big school districts are looking at eSports to start next fall," said Antor.
The students compete in games like Rocket League and Fortnite with more than just bragging rights up for grabs.
"There's 144 varsity programs across the country, there are five in the state of Michigan and they're all giving scholarship money," said Antor.
Colleges like Aquinas and Davenport are also getting involved. Three students at West Catholic are attending Aquinas this fall after being awarded eSports scholarships.
Corey Grant is one of those students—he is in the top 1 percent of Rocket League players.
"Aquinas has a signing table and obviously they were happy to see that. I wasn't just wasting my time playing video games in a dark room at 2 a.m.," said Grant.
"Working at Aquinas, I've given scholarships anywhere from $4 thousand to $10 thousand a year to come and play video games....which is crazy," said Antor.
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