Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 is almost on us and to quote Big Kev, I\u2019m excited! There\u2019s so much to see and do over the three days that I could spend from now until then talking about it. But there\u2019s one thing in particular that I\u2019m really looking forward to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With my ownership of a couple of different LCO team shirts you might think I\u2019m deadest keen for the LCO Grand Final. Or maybe even the chance to see international teams go up against OCE\u2019s own Grayhound and Vertex in the CS:GO ESL Challenger series. But you\u2019d be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it\u2019s the BYOC LAN event, with cash prizes for the best players in Valorant, Fortnite, COD and many more? Not that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then you might think \u201cOh there\u2019s some amazing music acts like Mashed N Kutcher, Godlands, Jade Zoe and Brambles! Surely that\u2019s what this guy is looking forward to the most?\u201d Not that either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cosplay competition? The first ever Artist Alley? Couch Warriors and their fighting game tournaments? Nope, nada, nein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, what I\u2019m looking forward to most at Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 is the Student\u2019s Day on the Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admittedly that\u2019s probably not high on most people\u2019s list of things to see. While universities have some good esports programs, these programs haven\u2019t really found their way into high schools. But this is where the focus needs to be if esports are to grow in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My involvement in esports in pretty limited. I co-host the Game On Aus esports podcast Nuts & Bolts and have been a keen supporter of the World Of Tanks ANZPL since its inception, but I have no in depth involvement with any esports leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I do have is some experience with helping to run my local hockey club. I\u2019ve been involved in some shape or form of support role. And yes, I know we hate it when we compare esports to traditional sports. Yes, they are different. But where they\u2019re not different is needing a young player base interested in competing at high levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeing high schoolers being supported by teachers at Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 makes my heart soar. These students are what\u2019s needed to take OCE to the next level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more people that play a game, the better the top players will get and the more we\u2019ll improve as a region. It\u2019s such a simple concept. Of course, the implementation of that concept is tricky I\u2019m super happy that Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 has a place for a Student\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more we can promote esports in schools, the more accepted by the general public it becomes, the more watched the higher-level leagues become, the more sponsorship dollars become available. That in turn means more in more investment in esports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you grow your player base from the grassroots, you\u2019ll reap the benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So that\u2019s why I\u2019m the most excited for Student\u2019s Day. What are you looking forward to the most at Dreamhack Melbourne? Let us know on social media. We\u2019ll see you there at Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 running from Friday the 28th<\/sup> to Sunday the 30th<\/sup> April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dreamhack Melbourne 2023 is almost on us and to quote Big Kev, I\u2019m excited! There\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,13],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-esports","category-news","tag-28"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.str8jaktjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}