That mix would continue throughout the school year. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, pros instructed students on competition strategies for popular games like Fortnite and Valorant. On one such day, students gathered around a whiteboard for a nearly scientific lecture about the relative merits of Street Fighter characters, then broke into groups to put the lesson into action.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students studied core subjects like Math, Biology and English. Unlike at normal Japanese schools, classes started later, at 10, and there were no uniforms.
Another unaccustomed sight for a school in Japan: Tardiness.
On one day early in the school year, only two of the boys showed up for the start of first period, a lecture about information technology. There were four teachers. As pupils straggled in, the teachers offered a cheery hello or simply ignored them. By third period – Biology – five students had arrived. Only two stayed through the day’s last class, English.
The teachers were happy they came at all. “Kids who didn’t come to school in the first place are allergic to being forced,” said Akira Saito, the school’s principal, an affable bear of a man, who had spent years teaching troubled students in Japanese public schools.
The academy’s philosophy was to draw them in with the games and then show them that “it’s really fun to come to school, it’s really useful for your future”, he said.
In truth, few of the students will become pro gamers. E-sports has never caught on in Japan, where people prefer single-player games. And careers are short anyway: Teenagers – with their fast-twitch reflexes – dominate. By their mid-20s, most players are no longer competitive.
The academy’s teachers encourage students to seek other paths into the industry – programming or design, for example – and to make pro gaming a sideline, not a career.
