{"id":1320246,"date":"2020-05-28T17:51:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996774"},"modified":"2020-05-28T17:51:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:51:23","slug":"video-gaming-league-recruiting-in-new-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/video-gaming-league-recruiting-in-new-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"Video gaming league recruiting in New Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"714\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-1160866353.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-1160866353.jpg 714w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-1160866353-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Closeup hands of anonymous male holding modern controller while playing video game in dark room<\/strong><br \/><em>Crop hands with controller<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>New Castle Recreation is dipping its toes into the rapidly expanding world of competitive video gaming with a summer program focused on popular sports games, the recreation department director said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the benefits have to do with camaraderie and community building,\u201d said Hannah Bihr, New Castle\u2019s recreation director. \u201cBut there\u2019s also a strategic component to video gaming.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Collectively known as Electronic Sports, or Esports, the competitive video gaming industry exploded in recent years. Business Insider reported in December the industry\u2019s earnings are on track to be more than $1 billion in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Bihr said growing interest nationwide was a factor in starting the program, but ultimately, her team decided to move forward with the initiative because people can participate from home \u2014 a key selling point during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis was us thinking outside the box about ways to engage the community during these difficult times,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>The program will be facilitated by the Mission Control app, which participants need to download at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.missioncontrol.gg\/play\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.missioncontrol.gg\/play<\/a> and register with New Castle Recreation in order to play. Registration fees are $10 per person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMission Control is an app used by schools, rec centers and other entities across the nation to help organize these play events,\u201d Bihr explained.<\/p>\n<p>New Castle Recreation invested $600 into its Esports program, which mostly went toward Mission Control fees, she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To participate, people will need their own gaming console or PC, an internet connection and access to one of the games being hosted. Bihr said participants can play on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch or PC.<\/p>\n<p>Six nights of the week, excluding Sundays, New Castle Recreation will host a single game and participants playing on the same console will be paired in a \u201cnon-competitive and friendly gaming environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Leagues will consist of players interested in the same game with the same consoles.<\/p>\n<p>Championship prizes have not yet been determined, but will be awarded to each league\u2019s top player in mid-July.<\/p>\n<p>The registration deadline is set for today, but Bihr said interested parties who missed the deadline could contact New Castle Recreation at 970-984-3352 to check if any slots were available.<\/p>\n<p>New Castle\u2019s Esports\u2019 games are slated to include:<\/p>\n<p>Madden 20<\/p>\n<p>FIFA20<\/p>\n<p>NBA2k<\/p>\n<p>NHL20<\/p>\n<p>Rocket League<\/p>\n<p>Mario Kart<\/p>\n<p>Rocket League players will be able to compete across platforms, because the game\u2019s servers support cross-play.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, participants will only play against each other, but Bihr said she hopes the program expands enough for New Castle Recreation\u2019s teams to challenge other recreation departments\u2019 teams in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe definitely feel like this is something that is up and coming,\u201d Bihr said. \u201cAnd, we\u2019d like to explore it in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newcastlerec.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.newcastlerec.com<\/a> for more information and a full Esports schedule.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:ifredregill@postindependent.com\">ifredregill@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/competitive-video-gaming-league-recruiting-in-new-castle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closeup hands of anonymous male holding modern controller while playing video game in dark roomCrop hands with controller New Castle Recreation is dipping its toes into the rapidly expanding world of competitive video gaming with a summer program focused on popular sports games, the recreation department director said. \u201cA lot of the benefits have to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 20:46:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}