The Gainesville City Board of Education voted to approve the purchase of eSports equipment for Gainesville High School during its Monday night meeting.
The board approved $45,330.86 for the purchase, which will include gaming PCs, peripheral devices, monitors and gaming chairs for an eSports lab on the GHS campus. Eddie Nemec, Director of Instructional Technology and Media Services said the school system hopes to implement the team for the 2025-2026 school year.
“eSports is an athletic competition for students in video games, which allows them to compete with other students in the state of Georgia,” Nemec said. “Interestingly, in other sports, you kind of compete in a certain region, but with eSports, depending on the title, you could actually compete across the state. And there are several different ways that they compete.”
Nemec said competitions can include Nintendo games such as “Mario Kart” or “Super Smash Bros” or PC games like “League of Legends”.
“We've recognized that it's kind of grown around the state, and a lot of school systems have already gone down this pathway,” he explained. “ [This is] a way to reach the students that may not participate in a sport. So there's a lot of kids that are at the high school that are really into video games. So this might be an opportunity for them to shine and show their talents.”
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