Maccabi Games’ New Esports Tournament Lets Jewish Teens Compete In Super Smash Bros, FIFA
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The JCC Maccabi Games have added video game tournaments to the Olympic-style competition.
Three-thousand Jewish teenagers are due to compete in various athletic events at the upcoming Maccabi Games, in Atlanta from July 28 to August 2, and Detroit from August 4 to 9. This year, esports are joining the lineup of events.
Esports are competitions on video games. Lost Tribe Esports will host eight tournaments over the Maccabi Games. There will be a 21-station gaming center, where 56 teens can play two-on-two at any time. The video games include Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rocket League, NBA 2K19 and Madden NFL 19.
All athletes can play esports on their free time and also participate in the tournament. It presents a new way to compete, connect and forge friendships, according to Samantha Cohen, vice president of JCC Maccabi and the JCC Association of North America.
After the Maccabi Games, Lost Tribe Esports is moving forward with online tournaments open to the athletes and other Jewish teens around North America. It will eventually be a global, year-round activity.
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
