Vodafone New Zealand is this year backing the rise of esports across New Zealand and wider Australasia, after signing on as the head sponsor for the LetsPlay.Live (LPL) High School League 2020.

The High School League brings together secondary school students across Australasia to compete in two popular esports titles: The online PC version of Dota 2 and the mobile app-based Clash Royale.

This is the High School League's fourth consecutive year of competition, and it's a totally free way of providing high school students with a way of experiencing esports up close.

The league operates similarly to traditional high school sports, promoting teamwork and sportsmanship as well as academic achievement within the medium of video games.

Let'sPlay.Live director Duane Mutu says the league also helps to develop students' leadership skills and critical thinking.

“We encourage academic success by stating that students must be achieving in the classroom to participate in the HSL and we do not tolerate bad sportsmanship or online behaviour within the league.

LPL adds that there four key pillars of the High School League:

• Teams must have a supervising teacher on-board
• Teams are encouraged to play from school as traditional sports teams would
• If schoolwork suffers within seasons, players may be suspended from the team until their grades improve to a satisfactory level
• Bad sportsmanship and online behaviour is not tolerated and will be disciplined by the league

Vodafone New Zealand consumer director Carolyn Luey says Vodafone is proud to be the headline sponsor for the High School League in 2020.

“With an astronomical rise in popularity of online and mobile gaming in recent years, the HSL plays an important role in promoting positive behaviour online for our young people,” says Luey.

“We are especially excited that the league will feature the popular mobile game Clash Royale. As we continue to roll out our 5G network throughout New Zealand, the increased network speeds and low latency will only make mobile gaming even more widespread.

“Establishing healthy outlets for high school students interested in gaming is essential which is why we are proud to be supporting the High School League,” Luey concludes.

The first of the 2020 High School League tournaments (Split 1) is now open for registrations until 23 February. The Clash Royale three-versus-three battles are broadcast on gaming streaming platform Twitch every Monday from 2 March on Twitch. The HSL Split 1 prize pool amounts to $3,750 NZD worth of prizes, thanks to Vodafone New Zealand.