Esports: Leveling Up Teach-Out

Watch this short video that provides a brief and basic introduction. In the next few videos, you will learn briefly about the history of esports and break down some key concepts. We’ll dive deeper into these concepts in future activities.

Esports, if not the term then the concept of competitive gaming, goes back as far as actual video games do. The first known video game competition, The Intergalactic SpaceWar! Olympics took place on October 19th, 1972 giving birth to a multibillion dollar industry that has touched the lives of millions. However if you listen to the first, and longest reigning single video game champion, Bruce Baumgart, you would never know it. Hear it right from the champ in this 2019 interview with Bruce Baumgart: the story of the first esports champion, undefeated since 1972.

Reflection Questions

Before we kick off the course, feel free to think about the following:

• What early questions do you have about esports?
• What do you hope to learn in this Teach-Out?