EAST HELENA — Several members of East Helena High School’s esports team — and their mascot Caesar — are all hyped and ready to go to St. Louis in June for the LOS Scholastic Nationals tournament.

But there’s a roughly $3,000 hurdle standing between those Vigilantes and their downright awesome opportunity.

“It’s very awesome, because I barely ever leave Montana in general,” said East Helena esports team member Kayleigh Peterson. “But also to be leaving Montana for something that’s for my school, and that I’m actually doing, is kind of meaningful for me because I usually don’t do any school activities.”

The Montana High School Association, which governs the state’s high school sports, labels esports as an emerging sport. That label means esports aren’t yet fully sanctioned, something that could soon change as participation rates continue to rise.

“My vision for East Helena Vigilante esports is to just get to that level where we are just a normal high school sport,” said Mason Skains, one of East Helena’s varsity esports coaches. “Like any other sport, like football, basketball, and such.”

But in order for East Helena esports to take its next step and compete at the national level, the Vigilantes will need their community to step up and support them.

“Oh, that would be awesome, dude,” said East Helena’s Ben Paige. “I’d love to go to state and prove that Montana state is the best. Y’know, just to show off East Helena Vigilantes. It’ll be great.”

Peterson said the community stepping up and donating the needed $3,000 in order for her and her teammates to travel to St. Louis would be very meaningful.

“It would be very meaningful because that means they actually care about it like a real sport, I suppose,” said Peterson. “And it’d be cool to see the community come together to donate money for it, even if they don’t know what it’s about because it’s not as popular.

“I think people are confused about it. But it would be cool for people to still do it even if they don’t know what it’s about.”

Those interested in donating should contact Shaun Murgel, East Helena activities director, via email at smurgel@ehps.k12.mt.us or by phone at 406-227-7730.

Children ages seven to 15 had a blast playing video games and improving their teamwork and socializing skills at Affinity Esports’ Spring Break Gamer’s Retreat from April 14 to 18.

Established in 2021, Affinity aims to be Connecticut’s premier organization to develop happier and healthier gaming experiences for everyone of all ages. While Affinity has teams for organized competitive gaming, also known as esports, the organization offers a wide variety of programming for youth, teens, and adults such as camps, game nights, and after-school classes.

One of these many camps was the Spring Break Gamer’s Retreat. Designed for those passionate to explore gaming in a supportive environment, the camp let children have fun playing games like Minecraft, Mario Kart, and Super Smash Brothers, while also developing healthy gaming habits.

A normal camp day consisted of daily gaming challenges, free play, and off-screen activities such as drawing, according to Affinity Program Coordinator Brendan O’Hara. Everyone had the chance to work together, or by themselves, and pick their own goals. The first day of camp saw one group team up to speedrun Minecraft, while some others played around in Fortnite.

The afternoons have a quick topic discussion on healthy gaming habits such as the importance of taking breaks, eating healthy, and drinking water. Children would also have breaks to get them off the computer, whether that meant playing a board game or going for a walk outside on the nearby scenic trail.

Between the breaks and a group lunch, where everyone can eat together outside if the weather is nice enough, there was always a chance for the kids to connect with each other outside of the game.

For O’Hara, who guided the kids in activities and cheered them on when they reached their goals, his favorite part of camp was seeing how passionate the kids were in everything they did.

“It’s just really easy to get into whatever the kids are doing,” O’Hara said.

Benefits Of Gaming

Affinity Director of Program Development Kate Petersen said the goal of the Spring Break Gamer’s Retreat was to allow kids some free time and flexibility to play the games they want, but to also help connect them with other kids of a similar age who are into the same games.

This not only carries Affinity’s larger goal of combining gaming with mental wellness and community-building, but Petersen said it lets kids develop important life skills and create lasting memories.

“What we hear again and again from parents who sign their kids up for our programs is that their kids love to game, but if they’re gaming at home, they’re worried about them being isolated, sitting all day, and not making connections with other people,” Petersen explained.

She continued by saying that many parents want their kids to have a more social, healthier experience with a hobby they love. Petersen said she’s watched campers who have been with Affinity for several years blossom and make a lot of new friends and connections.

“Maybe the first six months they were here, they walked in the door and went to their PC because they were too shy to talk to people. Now they come in, know everybody’s name and are saying hi to everyone,” Petersen said. “It’s just exciting to see them get comfortable and come out of their shell.”

Mark Kilpatrick, who co-founded Affinity with his wife Emily Kilpatrick, said the transferable skills developed through gaming are “undeniable.” These include skills such as teamwork, coordination, and communication. While they’ll keep pushing for children to develop those skills, Kilpatrick said he felt the inclusion side of gaming is something many people overlook.

He noted how there’s a lot of stigma around encouraging an activity that some people are uncomfortable with or might not know much about.

“And we just love when we see parents and guardians start to take that leap and say, ‘You know, maybe there is a productive way that they can love this thing and grow,’” Kilpatrick said.

Future Goals

This year’s marks Affinity’s second spring break camp. When they ran it last year, Kilpatrick said they had around six or seven kids sign up and felt really good about the program’s momentum.

“That’s when we thought, ‘Well, we should be running camps not just during the summer, but also during the spring and winter as well,’” Kilpatrick explained.

To that end, they were excited to hold camp again this year and see several more kids join. Kilpatrick said they want their camps and programs to feel casual, but structured.

“Everything we do is so structured, and it’s coding based or it’s highly competitive gameplay based, so we were really surprised that these weeks have taken off. People love them as a change of pace,” Kilpatrick said.

Carrying off the momentum of their camps and programs, Affinity recently expanded their Newtown studio. In addition to their upstairs office space on Glen Road, Affinity has opened up a new downstairs space in the same building for camp and program activities.

On the change, Kilpatrick said the original space was “everything we needed it to be” for the time.

He added, “It helped us create the initial spark we needed, but it was time for us to grow up as a location and as an organization.”

Kilpatrick said that Affinity is now able to do more with their youth programming. Not only are they expanding to do live events, corporate trainings, team building, and end-of-year corporate parties, but they are able to do more work with the Department of Mental Health and Young Adult Services. Beyond that, Kilpatrick said they have and will continue to expand to their sister organization, Connecticut Esports.

“Now we’re expanding into pushing out more content in the [gaming] industry, being a connector for schools and universities, and really creating a meeting ground and hub for all things information-related to this industry,” Kilpatrick said.

For the near future, Kilpatrick said they’re looking forward to a “blowout” summer, with full-day summer camps starting June 16. Whether it’s on pixel art or content creation to building in Minecraft or game creation and coding, Kilpatrick and Petersen want there to be a program for everyone.

After all, seeing children find that spark and make memories with friends new and old is a driving force for their work.

“It’s been pretty amazing watching people find that here,” Kilpatrick said.

Affinity Esports has a Newtown studio located at 27 Glen Road. For more information about Affinity Esports, as well as their other studios, visit affinityesports.gg, call 203-290-1656, or e-mail hello@affinityesports.gg.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.

Affinity Esports staff stands with campers of the organization’s Spring Break Gamer’s Retreat camp on Monday, April 14. This spring break camp is only one of many programs Affinity offers, along with after-school classes, game nights, private lessons, full-day summer camps, and more. —Bee Photo, Visca

Affinity Esports recently expanded its Newtown studio with a new lower level dedicated to gaming and other activities. —Bee Photo, Visca

Affinity Esports is an organization headquartered in Newtown that offers video game related programs, camps, and other activities.—Bee Photo, Cross