The World Affairs Council of Jacksonville and the Flight Deck at the University of North Florida collaborated on Friday to host local high school students for a gaming tournament.

Local high schoolers in Duval County flocked to UNF on April 10 to participate in a GeoGuessr tournament hosted by the Flight Deck and the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville.

The event was held in the Flight Deck, the university’s new esports arena that opened in February.

The World Affairs Council of Jacksonville is a non-profit organization in Northeast Florida that promotes international understanding, education and global engagement. According to its website, the organization’s mission is to “promote an understanding of the world and its people and to engage citizens of Northeast Florida in becoming better informed participants in the global community.”

GeoGuessr is an online geography browser game that drops players into a random location anywhere in the world, and players must use their surroundings to find out where they are.

Rachel Paul, the director of operations and outreach for the World Affairs Council, said she came up with the idea when she heard about the Flight Deck’s creation.

“They weren’t even done with construction [of the Flight Deck] before we got started on this. So I worked with George and Tom, and they have been amazing. And they’ve really helped make it what it is,” said Paul.

George Boston and Tom Screech are the university’s ITS change manager and the esports program manager. 

Paul said she chose GeoGuessr for the tournament because of the geography aspect of the game.

“[GeoGuessr] has to do with the world and picking up on context clues and all of that helps them get into a global mindset. And it’s also fun, and we get to utilize this amazing new space. So we’re hoping that becomes a tradition,” Paul said.

During the tournament, players got to guess from locations around Jacksonville as a warm-up, then move to global locations.

Thirty-five high school students participated in the event, which had sponsorships, medals and a trophy for the winner.

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