Jimmy T Tran

March 7, 2021

Rocket League and Among Us

One of my students video projects (their top 5 games) inspired me to play Rocket League this morning. What was supposed to be a quick 15-minute game, turned into an hour. Gosh, I love this game. It’s the speed I’ve always wanted in a Soccer game, because of well, cars. Cars playing Soccer - life is beautiful.

I’m also playing it again because I want to start an eSports League at my Middle School. Having an eSports League will be an unexpectedly awesome way of getting students who normally wouldn’t hang out, playing Soccer…with Cars!…together! Imagine these group of students when they get to high school, the memories they will have playing together. They wouldn’t never have been friends otherwise. It’s a weird silo only free, cross-platform video games can create, that I think is crucial to diversity down the line. Let’s look at Among Us: it’s the one monoculture phenomenon that everyone (no seriously, everyone!) plays. It’s free, and cross platform (like Rocket League). I’ve seen students yell, argue, laugh, cry over Among Us games. It’s the most alive I’ve seen students during distance learning. I’ve seen students reaching across the aisle, exchanging phone numbers, so they can get impromptu Among Us games going. I try to run these games during class as often as I can - unfortunately, there just isn’t much time instructionally, during distance learning.

Back to Rocket League. What I’ll do right now is to use my daily 11:30am stream to start publicizing Rocket League eSports Club. Then, I’ll reach out to my principals to see what they think. I am thinking we have the club at least once a week, for one hour a week. Then, I’ll expand it to two hours per week tops during distance learning.