In-person state tournament signals new milestone for Hawaii e-sports

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Video games as a high school sport. Decades ago that would have been a completely foreign concept, but it’s quickly catching on across the state.

E-sports has gone from a social activity to a sanctioned school sport and this weekend, it reaches a new milestone with its first in-person Hawaii High School Athletic Association state tournament.

”This has probably been the most grassroot and student led initiative I’ve ever seen,” said Iolani e-sports coach Gabriel Yanagihara.

E-sports was formally recognized by the HHSAA back in 2019 and Yanagihara credits the students for pushing to make it an official sport.

”Nobody is coming to these kids and saying Hey your parents or your teachers or your coaches are saying you gotta play video games,” Yanagihara said.

“They’re the ones coming to us and saying hey we want to compete, we want to see what we can do and we want to show nationally what Hawaii players can do and all we need you to do is say yes.”

Over the last several years, it’s continued to gain momentum with students statewide.”It’s pretty cool that a lot of schools are interested,” said Iolani e-sports coach Trey Luke. “There’s like over 50 schools in Hawaii that are involved. It goes even further to the middle schools too. Clearly there’s a lot of interest.”

Luke has been instrumental in launching e-sports across Hawaii.

Roosevelt has had a team for the last five years.

They and other schools have had to make their case as to why it should be considered legitimate.

”It requires the exact same skills for any other traditional sport,” said Roosevelt e-sports coach Mark Kauanui. “Communication, teamwork, dedication. perseverance, all of that stuff, fine motor skills.”

Advocates point to a number of benefits including experience in high-stakes competition, strategic planning, camaraderie, and college and career opportunities.

”So they (Iolani e-sports players) do all the IT work, they do the PC repair, networking for all of it,” Yanagihara said. “In addition, they run all of our website articles, social media, all our photography work. Every student that comes through our program could run an entire program like this whether it’s e-sports or any other organization.”

And after years under the headset and in their own classrooms, gamers advance to another level as hundreds gather Saturday for the  HHSAA’s first in-person state tournament.

”It makes it a lot more fun, more rivalries between the teams,” said Iolani e-sports freshman Aiden Kobashigawa.

“It’s able to meet other people and being able to compete against other schools is amazing.”And those behind the controls hope this underscores that e-sports is far from game over.

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