photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence's new esports academy team play a game of Rocket League in the club's new esports lounge Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence is partnering with a local professional gaming organization to launch an esports lounge, along with an academy team that will compete in tournaments playing a popular video game.

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence academy team will compete in Rocket League tournaments under the mentorship of a coach with the Kansas City Pioneers — a gaming, media and professional esports organization that competes in various online multiplayer games. The club announced the partnership in a news release this week and celebrated the new esports lounge at the Center for Great Futures, 2910 Haskell Ave., on Thursday evening.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence’s new esports academy team, with the help of the professional Kansas City Pioneers team, cut the ribbon on a new esports lounge Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

This is the second Boys & Girls Club chapter the Kansas City Pioneers have partnered with; three years ago, the team built the first Boys & Girls Club esports lounge in the country in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City. And now, the Lawrence academy team is also the first of its kind in the nation.

Esports, short for electronic sports, are a form of competition using video games, often taking the form of organized tournaments between professional players in a number of online multiplayer games. Rocket League — a game where teams of up to four players pilot rocket-powered cars and attempt to score goals on a soccer-style field —  is one of them, boasting nearly 100 million monthly players worldwide.

But the partnership with the Kansas City Pioneers doesn’t just give kids a place to play video games. It also comes with year-round programming, a “content creation mentorship program” to empower aspiring esports content creators and the launch of fall and spring internships with the Kansas City Pioneers offering hands-on experience in the team’s esports operations.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence play a fighting game in the club’s new esports lounge.

“The academy team is the first of its kind in the U.S., and we’re proud to create that through our partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence,” Lissa Leibson, strategic adviser for the Kansas City Pioneers, said in the release. “As we continue to grow, we know there are others that want to grow with us, and we are passionate about our midwest roots and look forward to partnering with the Boys & Girls Club and continuing to make an impact in the communities in which we serve.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The new esports lounge at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence’s Center for Great Futures, 2910 Haskell Ave., is outfitted with computers, TV monitors and gaming systems.