Meet VT E-Sports Team, Black Ink Gaming

The Black Ink Gaming Studio is the conception of last year’s Seniors who wanted a place and equipment for live streaming. This year’s Seniors are taking it to a new level: Introducing VT E-Sports Team – Black Ink Gaming (competitive video gaming). They have teams, live competitions, and a great group of students leading the way.  

Globally, the gaming industry is expected to reach $219 billion in 2024, passing the $200-billion threshold in 2023. At the end of 2021, approximately three billion players spent a combined $175.8 billion on games. – DigitalTurbine.com

It’s no wonder that VT Seniors are excited and on board for competitive gaming, or possibly even a future in game development, graphic gaming design, and product development. With so many ever-expanding career possibilities in the gaming industry, there is no shortage of future opportunities in the field overall. It also offers a great alternative for those who prefer the digital world to the physical world of athletics. Black Ink Gaming offers something for everyone.  

The senior team leading the eSports Team are Leaders Andrew Elie, Marc Gnambo, Lydia Taylor, and Breana Alfaro. We attended an event to get the chance to find out more firsthand. The main question we asked was, “how did the VT E-Sports Team come into existence?”
“I had an idea, and I have a burning passion for playing video games”, said Senior Andrew Elie. I pitched to Mr. Arista with one of my teammates, Marc Gnambo, … and we needed someone to keep us on track, we need someone who’s gonna hold us down, so we brought Ms. Lydia (Taylor) on and she has been a phenomenal help ever since! She basically runs the thing and we need her to, she’s really the brains of this whole operation,” continued Elie.

Next, we turned to speak with Lydia Taylor about her involvement in the group. “I’m very into academics, and I felt that throughout high school I didn’t have the opportunity to have fun because I focused on school a lot,” said Senior Lydia Taylor. “I decided for my senior summit project, I wanted to do something I was going to be able to find joy in. Video gaming has been that thing for me.” 

She continued, “this team started as a legacy team, meaning people from last school year started this project with the goal of streaming in mind. We switched the focus to esports/e-gaming/electronic sports, whatever you want to call it, it’s competitive video gaming.

This is a big booming billion-dollar industry with a lot of scholarship opportunities and its growing into a giant career field, so it’s a really good opportunity for people in high school and middle school, to play E-sports, get scholarships, learn about the field, even if they’re not going into competitive video gaming, there are a bunch of jobs behind the scenes.”

We also asked Breana Alfaro how she got involved with this Senior Summit Group. She said, “When I heard about Andrew’s pitch I thought it was a really good idea, I was really interested in it. … I was going over the teams with Mr. Arista, I saw Andrew’s group, and I thought it would be fun and I’d do good with these people because it’s video games. Most of my family members or friends would see me playing games on my phone or a console, regardless, I’m always gaming.”

This is such a smart strategic move for these seniors in so many ways. According to the gaming industry predictions, they have very bright futures ahead.

Does this sound like something you’d like to participate in? If you’re a 9-12th grader and are interested in participating in the VT E-Sports Events, watch this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rL-EyqzhI, and scan the QR code for more info.