High School Starleague (HSL) is North America’s premier eSports organization for high schools helping to expand and legitimize eSports at the high school level.
Thanks to the support of Twitch, Newegg and other companies, the top talent in HSL’s League System will be competing for over $20,000 in college scholarships!
HSL over the past several months has gathered students over games like League of Legends, StarCraft II and DOTA 2, to build friendships and rivalries with opposing school teams from across North America.
“With these scholarships, the HSL will usher in a new era of eSports where excelling in cyber-athletics will be as respected as excelling in traditional sports,” said Tomber Su, CEO of High School Starleague.
“Through tournaments and scholarships, we plan to prepare our aspiring and talented gamers for the professional gaming scene, while simultaneously ensuring success in their education and character development outside of the game,” added Jesse Wang, COO.
HSL’s successful tournament draws inspiration from professional tournaments like Riot’s League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and Blizzard’s StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS), where professional teams compete for prize pools in the millions. This is a prize pool unheard of for the high school level of play, and a testament to HSL’s core mission of empowering the next generation of high school talent.
HSL will be holding its finals for the 2013-2014 season this June in Southern California. These events will be live broadcast on Twitch, the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers, at twitch.tv/hsstarleague. Twitch is also contributing $10,000 toward the scholarship. Newegg, the leading electronics e-tailer, will also be supporting the event by contributing $10,000 to the scholarship fund as well.
“Twitch and their team have been invaluable in assisting HSL in its mission to bring eSports to schools,” according to Su. “Twitch’s platform not only makes it easy to watch pro players, but students of all skill levels can share their gameplay experience with their peers. Without Twitch, we would not have been able to broadcast our players’ games, while their financial contribution has almost doubled our scholarship offering.”
High School Starleague Key Facts:
- Diverse Player Base: With over 750 schools representing 46 States and 8 Provinces in HSL this year, HSL constitutes as one of the largest tournaments in the world.
- Rapid Growth: In the past year alone, HSL has seen an enormous amount of community support, allowing it to grow from around 500 players to nearly 4000 players, with many more expected to participate in future events.
- Academic Merit: Players in the HSL are not only accomplished gamers, they’re strong students.
- Over 50 teams represent schools on US News and World Report’s ranking of top 200 high schools, and the average weighted GPA of players is 4.1
- Proven Talent: Many former HSL players and staff are now making a career in eSports, including:
- Nicholas “Gleebglarbu” Haddad plays Support for Cloud9 Tempest
- Max “Astrea” Angel plays Protoss for ROOT Gaming
- Libo “Xenocider” Chang plays Terran for Evil Genius
- Aidan “Zirene” Moon casts professionally for Riot Games
More About High School Starleague
The High School Starleague is the premier eSports organization for high schools across North America and is widely recognized as the most professional organization in its field. Since its inception in 2010, HSL has organized over 15 separate events including online tournaments, inter-school scrimmages, and live charity events, which have involved over 1200 high schools and 5500 students.
HSL also works closely with both school administrators and student clubs to legitimize eSports as part of a school’s athletics or extracurricular program, as well as teach students to build eSports communities at the local level. While primarily a North American organization, HSL is laying the groundwork for an EU expansion in the near future.
