Create an inclusive and diverse esports club

  • 5 minutes

Creating a culture of inclusion and acceptance supports student athletes in your classroom and esports environment. Esports offers opportunity to engage a wider demographic of young people to ensure inclusion and acceptance. Esports is age and gender neutral (given an individual is old enough to play the games!).

Esports allows people with disabilities to participate and compete in ways that doesn't happen with most traditional sports and activities.

  • Physical disabilities
  • Learning difficulties
  • Social, Emotional, Mental Health issues
  • Behavioral challenges
  • Neurodiversity - autism spectrum

Illustration of colorful gamers.

Survey your students' interests and run with it. Let them be the experts. Choose games that your students enjoy playing to start building and growing teams organically.

  • Determining student interest is the first step in engaging students with relevant and interesting games.
    • There are 40 different video games that are classed as esports.
    • Find out what your students enjoy playing and go from there.
    • If titles aren't readily accessible to your students, consider the esports world in Minecraft Education.
    • You can choose from Make and Model worlds but knowing that isn't the only experience your students want to play.
  • Next, develop team expectations with your student gamers.
    • These  are co-constructed with your students so that they take ownership.
    • Discuss terms like griefing, trolling, and rage quitting.
    • Discuss how to effectively communicate and react when it happens, because it will happen.
    • Developing group expectations of behavior with students allows them to set the rules of game play and helps them regulate social emotional components of esports.
    • Let students know it’s ok to not always be the best and to fail and try again.
    • The ability to take breaks and exhibit self-control are important.
    • Here’s an example of some norms that were created by fifth grade students in Southern California: Sample Minecraft Agreements.
    • Additionally, coaches should facilitate in setting team and personal goals around the games that can be navigated throughout their esports journey to explore many career path options.
  • The final step is finding a way to communicate with your team and their families and guardians.
    • Many esports leagues use community platforms like Discord or Microsoft Teams.
    • You'll want to think about how your students will communicate with each other during game play and beyond.
    • You need to think about online safety and safeguarding considerations around different methods of communication.

Image of an online game store.

Thought task

  • How inclusive is your school/college?
  • How can you improve your diversity & inclusion initiatives into your esports community?
  • How will you support esports game titles for all learners?
  • Which esports games do you think will be the most popular with students in your school?