Esports program launches at Montreal high school for aspiring pro-gamers

PhoenixBruneau began playingvideo games when he was five.

"I really like video gamesand it's been a big part of my life," he says.

Now 14, he plays video games, such as League of Legends, about 20 hours a week. In the summertime, when school's out, he'll sometimes practise35 hours a week.

"Every game I do is to learn and get better."

All this practice has a purpose. Bruneau wants to make competitive gaming his career.

"I've been trying to push it to another level," he says."I want to be a pro gamer."

Starting in September,he'll havemore timeto pursue his dream of becoming an eathlete.

He's enrolled in Montreal's first esports studies program.

Bruneau will spend his mornings atdouard-MontpetitHigh School, in the city's east end neighbourhood of HochelagaMaisonneuve,packing in a full day's worth of learning into a morning.

Then he'll ride the Metro to the Montreal Esports Academy in the Plateau, where he'll spend four hours every afternoonhoning his gaming skills with a professional coaching team.

The schoolsays between 10 and 15 students will participate in the first year.

Theesportsprogram will cost parents $2,500 a year.

Bruneau'smother,liseCt,supports her son'sesportsambitions.

"For me it's like having your kid going through hockey; it's a lot of time, it's a lot of investment, it's a lot of money, but it's the kid's passion."

A concentration program

douard-MontpetitHigh School is offering the initiative as aconcentration program, which is a copycat version of Quebec'sSport-tudesprogram where teen athletes already belonging to a sports federation are given time and flexibility in school to pursue elite sporting opportunities.

Since gaming is notrecognized as an official sport in Quebec, school administrators decided to includeesportsin their concentration program.

"A former student ofdouard-Montpetitwho was part of the [MontrealEsports] Academy proposed the idea,"AlainPerron, spokesperson for the CommissionScolairedeMontral,told CBC.

"Given that the school already has expertise in running aSport-tudesprogram and various concentration programs, it was easy to put in place."

Look inside the Montreal EsportsAcademy

Video game education comes to Montreal

6 years ago

Duration 1:34

Video game education comes to Montreal

Fourteen-year-old Charles-tienneBoileauis already getting a taste of the esports program. Since he's homeschooled, he doesn't have to wait for the fall hebegan attending the Esports Academy in January.

"It's fun to have a coach who tells you how to get better at the game," he says.

Boileau, also an elite AAA hockey player, says he spends about10 to 15 hours per week gaming.

"I lovewinning and I love competing and I know there are lots of players that are better than me. I always want to be the best and it's like you have to improve your skills to do the best."

Theory, gaming and exercise

Students'afternoons will be divided between training, theory and physical exercise. Their daily schedule will include about:

• 30 minutes of physical activity.
• 75 minutes of theory.
• 120 minutes of gaming.
• 15-minutebreak.

The gaming component will take the form of structured-game play with a personal coach.They'll train on games likeStarCraft II, Super Smash Bros. andLeague of Legends.

The theorysection will include lectures on subjects like how to position yourself inside a first-person shooter, how to manageresources in strategy games and sports psychology.

Students will also do at least 30 minutes of physical exerciseper day.

Maxe Leggett,a performance coach and yoga instructor at the academy, says peopleassume gaming is justabout hands and fingers.

"People don't know that these guys are also athletes and they need to train all of their body and minds," she says.

Bruneau says the combination of theory and gaming is what attracted him to the program.

"Here I get the learning aspect, the playing aspect. At home you don't get the learning aspect of what you wouldget with this program."

Quebec, with its booming gaming industry, is seeingesportstake hold in schools.

A similar program to douard-Montpetit's exists in Saguenay, about 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, where students learn how to game for about two and a half hours a day.

A CEGEP in Matane, a town on the Gasp peninsula, has an esports team, and universities including Concordia, McGill and Universit de Montral have esports clubs where gaming tournaments are organized.

FranoisSavard,the vice-president of the Quebec Federation of Electronic Sports, expects this trend to grow in the years to come.

"I have no hesitation in saying that esports programs, both in the form of concentration and extra-curricular, will become the norm in many schools."