UK’s First Esports Camp Shows Kids Gaming Strategies and Career Path Possibilities

For the first time, University of Kentucky Smart Campus hosted summer camp sessions aimed at teaching kids about the ever-growing world of Esports and what a career in gaming might look like.  

Because this was the first time Esports camps were held, the sessions were offered exclusively to UK families at no cost. Camps catered to kids ages 8 to 14 for one-day or five-day sessions. Gaming subject matter experts focused on strategy, communication, teamwork and technology education. 

On the final day of camp, Erik Jarvis, Smart Campus Lead, handed out the following awards: Fortnite Champion, Chess Champion, Top 8 Super Smash Bros., Rocket League as well a trophy for Best Esports Jersey Design and Sportsmanship.    

Jarvis and Smart Campus employees led the camps. Jarvis said camp sessions focused on similar programming, but adjustments were made for each age group.  

“We chose things like teaching strategy and the differences between strategies and tactics, the idea of why one would need a strategy,” he said. 

Jarvis said teaching kids about strategy wasn’t only aimed at gaming — the skills are also applicable to everyday interactions. Kids learned these skills by participating in multiplayer games.  

“It was important for us to provide positive and useful examples of communication between individuals, just to kind of give kids the opportunity to see what good communication was versus bad communication,” Jarvis said.  

Campers also experienced what it’s like to be a professional gamer by playing on a stage.  

“We also taught them stress and anxiety management through tournament perspective,” Jarvis said. “When professional Esports players are playing, they're playing in front of a lot of people, they're playing up on a stage, they're playing online in front of sometimes hundreds of thousands of people.” 

Alex Valdivia, a junior associate at the Cornerstone Esports Lounge, enjoyed working with the camps and hopes the campers enjoyed connecting with other kids their own age.  

“It's really fun working with them and seeing the excitement every day,” Valdivia said. 

Typically, professional gamers come to mind when discussing career paths in Esports, but Valdivia also taught kids about lesser-known career paths related to gaming production.  

“They were able to tour our production setup and learn exactly what was going on there, so that they know there's something more than just playing the games.” Valdivia said. “You can be anything you want really in Esports — you can organize the events, you can help run the stream, you can cast the events.” 

Campers also learned about specific games like Super Smash Brothers from subject matter expert Tate Sanders. Sanders is a senior at UK and a junior associate at the Cornerstone Esports Lounge.  

“The first few days I had a progressive curriculum teaching them the basics to progressing into more advanced techniques, including what their individual character likes to do because there's over 80 different characters to choose from in this game,” Sanders said.  

The older kids had experience with the platform fighting game, but it took more effort to get younger kids interested in the game.  

“The younger kids were not as familiar with the game...and after the first day, they were getting more and more excited about trying to play against each other.” 

Although the camps focused on gaming strategy, communication and technical education, one game became an unexpected hit. The kids’ enthusiasm surprised the staff — including Graden Knapp, smart campus partnership coordinator. 

Knapp thought the camp leaders would have to work hard to persuade kids to learn and play a board game.  

“But I was extremely surprised to see most of the kids come in and be—first of all to know how to play chess already and second of all, to be excited,” Knapp said. “They were like ‘Oh my God, we're playing chess today.’” 

Knapp said it was the most surprising and exciting part about leading the camps.  

The Cornerstone Smart Campus staff is already thinking about what worked and didn’t, and Jarvis said they’re planning to open Esports camps to the public next year.  

“I would like to do more summer camps, I think, throughout the summer, and then open that up more to the community as well. Obviously, we were pointed back towards the campus, folks. I think we'll still probably do some [targeted towards kids of employees], because that was very popular,” Jarvis said.