A Kansas City esports startup has strung together a combo of successes reminiscent of a playable character in some of the games central to the competitive leagues it has helped high schools build.
Founded in 2017, Generation Esports got off the ground following five years of rapid growth of the High School Esports League (HSEL). The gaming organization began as a passion project for co-founders Mason Mullenioux, Charles Reilly and Aaron Hawkey, who saw a chance to introduce esports as a new extracurricular beyond standard high school sports.
And it's not just Generation Esports that has scored high after the computers and consoles have powered down. For thousands of young students, the games can become stepping stones into new education and a range of professional fields.
"We know that clubs at schools can be fleeting, so we want there to be that solid foundation," Mullenioux, also Generation Esports' CEO, told the Kansas City Business Journal. "We've been trying to find ways to outfit (schools) with computer labs, get the coaches paid a stipend, just like any other traditional sport, and then add in that school component — an actual class that's worth credits. ... The overall vision is, you have your in-school portion and your out-of-school portion and they feed into each other."
Generation Esports formalized partnerships with the network of 160 high schools HSEL had built nationwide. Mullenioux described the startup as both a platform, providing for competitive inter-school tournaments among verified student teams, and a service, empowering educators to set up, organize and sustain those groups, including through funding and facilities.
A certified esports curriculum was rolled out across partner schools. The classes teach students college and career-ready skills and social-emotional learning. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, the program's pilot saw an average 1.4 point GPA boost and 95% or better attendance among participants.
"It uses gaming as kind of a Trojan horse to get kids excited," Mullenioux said. "There is gameplay involved in class, but there are also business components, there are English components, healthy eating habits, sleeping habits. In esports generally, you're dealing with computers and it's a very STEM-oriented environment in the first place, so the crossover isn't that hard to reach."
Over the past four years, Generation Esports has partnered with 5,100 high schools across the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Its platform also now supports leagues in middle schools, colleges, the military, businesses and parks and recreation departments.
The startup in April closed on $10.8 million in Series A financing, backed by Altos Ventures, FJ Labs and Moore Venture Partners. The funds helped fuel a hiring spree. Generation Esports has ballooned from about 15 people at the end of 2019 to 90 employees. About 60 are based out of the organization's Downtown offices at 908 Baltimore Ave., and the balance are remote.
"No one in Kansas City knew that we were here or what we were doing, and I think that still is kind of the case," Mullenioux said. "Our mentality is really just nose to the grindstone, keep your head down. ... We don't want to be fake or phony or anything like that, that really doesn't ever cross our minds. We're here to do something, and we're here to impact kids and change lives."
Generation Esports' initiatives have set up an ecosystem that allows schools with minimal esports knowledge to build and grow leagues, disrupting the industry and further putting Kansas City on the map as a hub within it, said Jeremy Terman, strategic advisor for local professional esports team Kansas City Pioneers.
The two organizations kicked off a partnership in August with a live Twitch stream of Among Us. The broadcast gave guests, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Dred Scott, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City, a window to discuss local crime prevention, the clubs' initiatives and how esports can aid in those efforts.
"As they (Generation Esports) become more solidified, and are headquartered here in Kansas City, it provides validation that the esports industry will last," Terman said. "We're trying to all band together and be like, why can't Kansas City be the esports capital?"
