With our school closure for the fourth quarter, we were trying to find ways to connect our school and local community through esports. We started running Community Game Nights on Thursdays and Fridays.

We started with Rocket League on Thursdays because that is the game we were playing in our esports club. We would have 15 – 30 players join from Laveen Elementary, our community, and from another school in our state, Sierra Verde Stem Academy. We also streamed the games to test out the different streaming platforms. We started with YouTube, tried out Mixer, and have settled on Twitch for our last few weeks.

We started playing Fortnite custom matches on Fridays as well. Fortnite is a game that we would not play at school, but it is free-to-play and is able to have up to 100 players playing all at once. Our first few Fortnite game nights brought in 35 – 45 players. Recently we have been partnering with the North American Esports Federation (NASEF) to host our Fortnite stream. We also had another of the NASEF Fellows co-host the stream and invited high school students to participate. We had over 90 players in the solo match and filled the duos lobby! We had 100 students, staff, and community members playing together!

As school winds down we are still deciding how often we will host Community Game Nights over the summer. These events have definitely increased engagement within our school community and had us partner up with other local and distant schools.

If you are interested in joining us for Community Game Night, either as a player or to watch the stream – the join information can be found here: How to Join: Laveen Community Game Night

Parents, please consider the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings for each of the games to decide if the titles being played are appropriate for your child.

Rocket League – Rated E for Everyone

Fortnite – Rated T for Teen

Fortnite Community Game Night – NASEF Stream

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