The idea for the league began after students within the school were challenging each other online, then eventually brought their friends from other schools into the fold. Over the last two years it’s expanded to involve 11 high schools with 14 teams.

“We could see that this was growing, that it was an area of interest that kids were really connecting to,” said Cameron.

The school decided on the game League of Legends, a multi-player online battle game that’s popular with high school students and easy to play as team.

“It’s fun, it’s a cool after-school activity you get to do with some friends,” said 16-year-old Kaiden Roach.

“I saw it as a chance to get to know people, because we’re all students from different schools.”

Students at the LRATC come from a variety of high schools to take vocational training while completing their high school diplomas.

Competitive video game playing, also known as esports, is now a high school varsity sport in eight states.

It began with Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in the fall of 2018. A few months later, the National Federation of State High School Associations said Alabama, Mississippi and Texas Charter schools have joined the mix.

CNN was recently invited to see to a competition in Georgia between North Atlanta High School and Grady High School, also in Atlanta, at the city’s newest esports arena. The venue opened in February as part of the Johnson STEM Activity Center.