With state associations in New York and New Jersey considering adding esports to their varsity lineup, a local website, Lohud.com, spoke to a neuropsychology specialist and clinician so she could share the warning signs of possible video-game addiction, like “spending 4-6 hours” after school gaming.

That sounds bad in human terms, but do you know how many varsity coaches would kill to have players who wanted to spend 4-6 hours per day at their sport? And do you know how many parents are going to start encouraging this, what with all the ever-growing pile of scholarship money at stake?

I wrote in 2017 and 2018 about the emergence of esports at the youth level, and there’s been some recent signs that varsity esports is rising to the mainstream, as in, esports is becoming enough of a moneymaker to require a feeder system.

At least seven state high school associations are offering esports at a varsity level, and more will add it. Even states without official varsity esports run state tournaments, and prizes can include scholarship money to one of the 115 colleges (and growing) fielding esports teams, and, in many cases, offering scholarships to gamers. (Though because I’m old enough to remember how quickly and eagerly crowds piled around Pac-Man savants at the Aladdin’s Castle at the local mall, so I’m shocked it’s taken this long for esports to become a thing.)

I also remember the “Square Pegs” episode where Devo played at Muffy’s New Wave Bat Mitzvah.

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