GALVESTON
The Galveston Island Convention Center, 5600 Seawall Blvd., was full of computer screens, game consoles and robots Saturday as part of the second Galveston Island Esports Summit.
The event is meant to draw in people interested in competitive gaming, video and table-top games, robotics and science and technology, said Mary Jo Naschke, principle of the event.
Hopefully, the event will help children and young adults see how esports, gaming and technology can transfer to jobs and long-term careers, she said.
“This is to let the kids know the interface so they have the final path,” Naschke said.
Esports is a professional level of video game competition in which participants can compete in large-scale tournaments.
Participants at the event could compete in esport tournaments, try out virtual reality headsets and talk to representatives of NASA, which had brought a Mars rover to the summit.
Companies displayed their Star Wars-like robots and gaming pods that looked like space capsules.
Sophomore Rebecca Lopez was attending the summit as a member of Ball High School’s robotics team.
The high school students had set up two large game arenas and controlled robots they built themselves to perform tasks like stacking balls in a tube.
Lopez has been building robots since she was in fifth grade, and she loved learning about the Mars rover from the NASA representatives, she said.
“What they do is interesting,” Lopez said. “They recently sent the rover to Mars, maybe learning more about a new environment.”
Game enthusiast Joseph Riddle drove to Galveston from San Antonio to try his hand at an esports competition Saturday, he said. Though a life-long gamer, Riddle had never tried a competition because esports can be very competitive, he said.
Riddle had been gaming since he was a kid, when his dad introduced him to gaming.
“He used to game to help me and my brother read,” Riddle said. “Legend of Zelda: it’s all written dialogue. From there, it took off.”
Riddle was excited to join his first tournament Saturday, he said.
Others came just for the joy of gaming.
High school seniors Joseph Stanton and Jasen Drake drove down from Dickinson to play the unique games at the summit.
Sporting Mario-themed hats, both Drake and Stanton had been at the summit all day.
“We’ve been trying everything,” Drake said.
Gaming was very important to Drake, who met his friends through the hobby, he said.
“It just connected me to people,” Drake said.
The U.S. Army Esports Team also brought a large trailer of gaming consoles for attendees to participate in tournaments.
The army’s esports team is made up of active duty and reserve personnel and is meant to show another side of army personnel, said Cpl. Hugo Flores, a U.S. Army esports liaison.
“Soldiers have passions outside of just being a soldier,” Flores said.
Gaming can also have some applications with electronic or drone warfare, though that’s not the main reason the army developed the esports team, he said.
“There are definitely some parallels but it’s not directly transferable,” Flores said.
Throughout the day, presenters who work in science and technology fields also spoke about their work and esport professionals talked about their careers.
Be the first to comment