The newly established 620 (St Mawgan) Aviation Ground School held a second esports event in February. The event held 12 cadets from both Plymouth and Cornwall Wing and Devon and Somerset Wing.
The day started off with the cadets practicing their flight and navigations skills by running the Maverick Challenge on Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Maverick Challenge is game mode inspired by the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and is designed to test speed control, environmental awareness and reaction time. This is always a popular activity to run and always yields positive results from cadets and staff alike.
The next activity ran was Rocket League. Rocket League is a football style game where the user plays as a rocket-boosted car. The cadets were split into two teams and put into a private match where they competed against each other and honed their communication and teamwork skills. Rocket League has consistently been proven to be a great way to test and improve the cadet’s leadership and teamwork skills and always brings lots of fun and an exciting competition spirit.
The cadets then moved on to Farming Simulator where they competed in the ‘Bale Challenge’. The Bale Challenge puts the cadets into individual fields with a hay trailer in the centre and eight hay bales scattered around the field. The cadets then must learn the (slightly difficult) controls and get all eight bales back onto the trailer and race back to the start box as fast as possible. This is only the second time this game has been used at a 620 AGS esports event and has proved to be a success both times.
Finally, we ended the day with the ever-popular Warthunder. Warthunder is a military combat simulator where you can pilot, steer and drive Aircraft, Warships and Tanks respectively to defeat the enemy team. We again had the cadets split in to two teams and then put them head-to-head in an aviation battle where they used their communication and teamwork to defeat their fellow cadets in simulated battle.
Overall, a great day was had by all, and all attending cadets have expressed gratitude towards the directing staff and expressed interest in attending future events.