Sykora Guy, photo courtesy of the subject

Sykora Guy is a student at Pampa High School in Pampa, Texas, for which she plays League of Legends on the school’s varsity esports team. Having recently competed in Region 16 High School Esports Invitational in Amarillo, Texas, for which Cisco Meraki was a major sponsor, she was presented with the*gameHERs High School Award. In this interview, Sykora shares her experience of being a girl in high school esports, her perspective on competing, and her hopes for the future of esports in high schools throughout the country and the world.

The*gameHERs: We are really excited to speak to you about your experience as a high school esports student and your experience with the Region 16 tournament. How long have you been involved in esports and how did you get started?

Sykora Guy: I've been involved in e-sports for around two years. I started my junior year, last year, and this is my senior year, my last year unfortunately.

I got started when I joined my computer maintenance class, which I thought at first would be a blow off class. Little did I know I had just found where I would fit in.

My first day in class I thought my teacher was crazy (Sorry Mr. Herrera) since he asked me to take apart the computer in front of me. I had never done anything like that in my life. I wasn't into computers at all before this moment. But as I was taking apart the computer, he explained the different parts of the computer, which I thought was super cool. I am thankful he told me to take apart that computer. Now I am part of the Dell Student TechCrew where I fix students' computers across Pampa ISD.

Mr. Herrera then asked me if I wanted to join the esports team. At first, I was hesitant because it was just kind of nerve-wracking, but then I decided, “yeah, I'll give it a try.”

Then I had to learn League of Legends competitively in two weeks. I just grinded every day. I was practicing in the mornings, every day with him, and then I would go home and practice and practice, practice, practice. It was definitely a challenge for me since I was playing against students who have played for years. All my practice paid off, and we were able to win competitions, making it to the playoffs.

Now with our new JV team, I'm able to assist my coaches by helping them with the new players. I have been in the players' shoes, and I know how it feels to be the new one learning to play the game and having all the pressure upon you.

That's really exciting. It sounds like you jumped in and you didn't have a lot of prior experience with this particular game, but you really devoted yourself to practicing and grinding away at it so that you could compete.

To pivot to talking about that competition, I know that you had written to us regarding your experience at the Region 16 tournament recently. Could you talk a little bit about that and tell us a bit about your experience there?

Sykora shakes hands with a competitor at the Region 16 Tournament in Amarillo, Texas

Well, as soon as I entered the building, I noticed I was one of the only girls there, one of the strong few out there. Coach Ontiveros had told my team to look out for me since there was a lack of females there, and that made the whole experience more comfortable for me because my teammates are very supportive.

I enjoyed meeting all the new different people because I love talking to people – trust me, I can talk people’s ears off. That's just me. I was able to make a lot of connections as well. I wandered around and looked at all the games available: Overwatch, MarioCart, SmashBros, and League of Legends.

I actually met a girl in the bathroom where we began to talk, and she was surprised I played League of Legends, but I understood why because there can be a lot of stereotyping in League which puts up a wall that girls must break down. It just makes it harder for girls to play League sometimes, but that is what just adds more to the challenge, making it more fun.

The Region 16 tournament, where we held the esports in-person event, was a more professional setting than I’d been in before. I could feel how it was a lot more competitive there and I definitely had the adrenaline rush feeling. But even though I felt a bit nervous, it was overall a lot of fun.

Sounds like the experience really lit a spark for you of that competitive spirit. I know that you mentioned that at the tournament you were one of a few girls, and you've noted that there are far fewer girls who are playing high school esports than boys in general. So I just want to go back a little bit to when you first got started: what inspired you to get involved, even though you didn't see a lot of other girls playing high school esports?

I wanted to join for the new experience because I love trying out new things. I used to be a really shy person, and I never really fit in. At first I played basketball, but that wasn't really for me. Neither was track. But since I joined the esports team, the environment has been very nice, and I felt like this was the place for me. I enjoyed it, and I wanted to form closer friendships too.

Has that been the case? You've become friends with people whom you weren't necessarily close with before?

Yeah, I never really thought I would be friends with any members on my team. But now we've grown really close and I trust them all completely. I even tell them about more personal matters I am dealing with to receive advice, or just see them as some people to talk to about things. I'm really thankful for it.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

How do you think high school esports has affected the experiences of high schoolers in your area, in the area you live in Texas or the region that you have competed in?

It has really affected our school and the students partaking in it. In our district in Texas we're the only school that has esports because it's very rural around here. In order to compete, we have to play online to play with 5A, 6A schools around the country. It can be difficult for us as a smaller and rural school because these bigger schools have a broader variety of students they can choose from for their teams, and some players have more experience, so we've just had to work our way through it, which we have successfully done, making it to playoffs multiple times. As for the students, it makes a safer place for those who don't really have an interest in other activities in school, providing something for them to do.

Sykora (center right) and her Pampa High School esports teammates

What is your favorite thing about esports?

My favorite thing about esports is creating the friendships. But also, I love meeting different people. I like to learn about their different game styles and their different cultures. We all meet up after school, and we go hang out. Once we had a Thanksgiving gathering where we all brought a different food from our own cultures; there was a huge variety of food, and I loved that.

Also, I have been gaining more confidence. I used to have no confidence. I'm still working on it. But that's something that I enjoy with esports, the confidence gained among the students. There are people in esports I fit in well with, and it’s helped me feel comfortable and confident to be one of the “student welcomers/leaders” and just someone to play with and have fun.

Are there any benefits to playing and competing that you may not have expected when you first got involved in esports?

When I first got involved, I just thought that I would be playing a game competitively. That's it. I didn't really think much of it because I wasn't really into gaming very much until now.

Then I found out that we were able to win many games. When we were competing and went to playoffs, we were able to win twelve new Alienware computers. Over the summer, my team and I competed in a summer event with PlayVS and we won $500, so we each got $100. And this Saturday, we're actually about to compete again, where this time if we win, we'll all each receive $500.

Yeah. That's a benefit.

Also, I never really thought gaming would give me connections, but I found out that it opens a broader view into the tech world. Just from our tournament alone, I was able to talk with people from Cisco, and now I’m talking with you at the*gameHERs. I was able to get some recommendation letters too. I feel like with those connections, my world is a little bit wider whenever I am looking for jobs or opportunities.

If other high schools around the country and world want to start esports teams, do you have any advice for them?

Honestly, just do it. That's what we did. We just dove right in. It was brand new last year. We didn't know how it would go. At first it will be stressful and you may think, “Is this going to work out?” But in our experience, it worked out, and I'm sure it can work out for other high schools. It’s such a new sport and sometimes people say, "you have an esports team?" And we're like, "Yes, we do," and they seem really interested in it, even the parents. When we were at a booth for freshmen, a lot of the parents were really into it. Parents would say that since their child is more shy, and not interested in other things, esports provided an activity for their child to do and not be home alone everyday after school. Once again, they were able to form their own friendships since joining our big esports family where they fit in.

Having an esports team can bring awareness to technology as well, because gaming revolves around technology. In our case, whenever we went to our computer maintenance class, people were like, “Hey, we want to get into esports.” Vice versa, students who were into esports wanted to get involved with our technology classes at Pampa High School. If we did it, other high schools can do it as well. Think about computer maintenance or any other tech class along the lines of esports.

I feel like having esports is a benefit for high schools because the skills you learn can prepare students for many jobs around computers; esports is related to computer maintenance, computer science, it brings out coding. When students get involved with esports in their school, they may consider getting into a class such as Computer Maintenance, Computer Science, Engineering, etc. There are so many jobs within these fields, like cyber security, IT, data science, engineering, software design, development, etc. That’s a benefit that the schools should look into if they are considering esports: the doors it will open within the job field for these kids.

But for the students, I think it's beneficial for them because it creates a place where they are able to be themselves. Sometimes in classes, a lot of gamers tend to be more shy. They don't want to go out, but once they get into this class, it can open something up for them where they're able to be themselves.

You really speak to the expansive power of esports as a subject and how plugged in it is to the tech world. It's also just a way in for a lot of kids -- socially, in terms of technology, in terms of interest in different subject matters, and in terms of future career prospects. To jump off of that point, what are some things schools, tournaments and leagues can do to make esports a more welcoming place for high school girls and women, such as yourself?

Sykora (center) and her Pampa High School Esports team mates at the Region 16 Invitational

For me, I was very lucky because my team accepted me right away. But I've also heard from some girls that sometimes esports is not accepting because there's a stereotype that girls can't really play games. A lot of toxicity comes into play.

I feel like removing toxicity in general for everybody is so important because you don't know what someone's going through in their life, in school, at work, at home. You never know what's going on. If people are being toxic and bringing people down, it just affects them in a very negative way, and it affects the team as well. If you're in a game and people are being toxic while competing, it brings down the whole morale to the point that the team basically can't play to its full ability, and it causes a loss – you will not win.

With gaming, people can get very personal. You want to put all your effort into it, so people get frustrated whenever something doesn't go well. But at the same time, you shouldn't be taking your frustration out on your team members. Instead, you should be thinking about “okay, how can we improve? We made a mistake, yes, we’ll learn from this mistake and improve.” That’s how I think it should be, and that would help esports become a more welcoming place for women.

You could expand that thinking outside of esports too – not only how you treat people on your own team, but also your own workplace, your own class, your own group of friends. The way we treat one another really affects not only how people will play, but also how people will feel. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, opinions, and experience.

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A Conversation with Sykora Guy, High School Esports Competitor