By Evelyn Taylor
For the second straight season, 10-year-old Pacific Palisades boy Julien Wiltshire has emerged victorious as the defending champion of Super League Gaming’s worldwide Minecraft competition. Julien, a fifth grade student, competed with his team at the iPic Westwood Theater in Los Angeles against over 450 teams from across the United States and Canada. Although his team didn’t take first place, Julien scored the highest amount of points in the individual competition, beating over 2,000 players.
Super League Gaming, the world’s first and biggest gaming league, is held in about 110 movie theaters worldwide. The league’s goal is to provide young gamers with the experience of competing on a team in a physical place with an on-screen leaderboard rather than alone on the computer at home. Co-Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer John Miller said the idea came from his observation of the benefits of teamwork, competition, sportsmanship, and commitment his own children received from little league sports, and his hope to incorporate those skills into another area of their lives.
“The great thing about theaters is that they’re basically in every community in the world and on a global scale. Most theaters are empty after school, during the week, or Saturday and Sunday mornings,” Miller said. “We can turn out theaters and turn them into ‘Super League gaming arenas’ pretty easily.”
In addition to schoolwork, spending time with friends, and playing basketball, Julien has been practicing Minecraft almost every day for the last six years.
“I like how you can do anything you want to [on Minecraft],” Julien said. “I was feeling really excited while I was playing [at the competition], and it’s really fun while I’m playing because the games are really exciting. I’m going to do more of the seasons.”
Julien’s mother, Victoria Wiltshire, said that she is happy to nurture Julien’s natural gaming talent in addition to his other activities and commitments as a fifth grader.
“We just thought that he loved the game so much, and he’s quite good at it, so when he won the Super League twice in a row, it was only then that we realized that he actually probably has a natural talent,” Victoria said. “We’re just keeping an eye on it and letting it unfold little by little.”
She also expressed that the competitions foster Julien’s teamwork and leadership skills as he coordinates with supportive team members while he plays.
“I guess it’s given him more of a way to focus something that was just a fun thing, so it’s become a more consolidated and driven thing for him,” Victoria said. “He understands that there’s a side of it that can actually help to propel him forward, perhaps in his career, because he’s thinking about doing YouTubing and Minecrafting more seriously.”
Miller praised Julien’s hand-eye coordination and motor skills as faster and more effective than other competitors in the game, and expressed interest in understanding Julien’s skills and how they will translate into the future.
“Knowing Julien, he’s sort of a role model,” Miller said. “What we’re seeing is that the people joining super league and competing are kids that are also getting straight A’s and doing lots of other interesting things too, so it’s really an activity for anyone and everyone, and it’s a great social experience.”
