2020 Responsibility League: Project Summary
by Oleh Rybalka, Member of the Board, UPEA
Responsibility League is a foundational event for UPEA Social’s entire vector of activity. The most significant achievement of 2020 was the successful integration of the concept of Social Esports into the Ukrainian esports market.
First, we set up an esports service platform to incentivize and empower its users. We determined the least protected groups in the Ukrainian society and created project activity formats for the Responsibility League.
We determined that Ukrainian esports needed to be developed vertically in multiple directions at once: education, science, and social responsibility. With this in mind, we signed an important co-operation agreement with the Kyiv-based National University of Ukraine on Physical Education and Sport. Negotiations with Lviv and Kharkiv universities and academies are in progress. We have also signed a memorandum with the Ministry for Veteran Affairs. All these documents entrench our commitment to developing the above-mentioned directions.
Responsibility League is a project that is unique not only in Ukraine but also worldwide. The esports industry is regarded primarily as a competitive environment focusing on entertainment. We view esports as a rehabilitation instrument that enables socialization and re-socialization, offering support and recovery.
In 2020, we managed to succeed in our pilot efforts in Kyiv, which led to the creation of multiple Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams. It is safe to say now that each pilot project participant group has stabilized, meaning that Responsibility League is ripe for scaling next year. We are planning to enter six more Ukrainian cities.
November 1, 2020
After a month of diligent work with the ATO veterans as a part of Responsibility League, our Head of Scientific Group Serhii Bobrovskyi and coach Andrii Farbun summed up preliminary results of the efforts.
According to Mr. Bobrovskyi, esports opens the door to new opportunities for project participants.
It’s too early to speak about concrete results. The fact is, however, that the Responsibility League helps ATO veterans and autistic children move in a beneficial direction (the group opened in end-October 2020). Esports enable people to learn new skills, communication, and personal interaction, which results in the overall improvement of their quality of life.
Reminiscing on the first training sessions, Veteran Team’s coach evaluated the participants’ progress:
First, they remembered how to play Counter-Strike: how to move, shoot, and buy ammunition. Then we proceeded to work on the communication between team members, learning how to speak to one another while playing, share information, and suggest ideas.
The first month’s achievements are staggering: each of member showed robust improvements—you should have seen it. Each got the hang of game mechanics. They shoot much better now and understand the game’s dynamics and their enemy’s actions. There is still work to be done in the way of communication, but the progress is already evident.
