MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County E-Sports team continues to attract attention from all over, as they have been selected to be a part of HBO’s Vice News Tonight.

Vice News Tonight is a news pro gram with “no ads, no anchors, and no censors.” A typical episode uses a mix of voiceovers, graphics and video packages to dive into stories about national and global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture.

The HBO Vice News camera crew attended the team’s weekly matchup Tuesday at Colquitt County High School and with the added pressure of playoffs, it was all hands on deck for coaches Ashely Hodge and Bobby Stinson.

Both coaches were all business as the camera followed them around. They shouted out last-minute instructions for their team and followed it up with an impromptu speech from coach Hodge as they got started.

Cameraman Srdjan Stojiljkovic said he’d never seen sports like this before.

“Looking at all these kids’ faces it tells the story,” Stojiljkovic said. “I don’t know much about the game they are playing but I’m hearing things about dragons, wizards and danger. It’s fun and dynamic to see how serious they are about this.”

Hodge was excited and nervous at the same time for these students. She said she couldn’t focus on the moment as she wants to get many teams as possible into the playoffs.

“Vice News contacted us because they wanted to run a story on e-sports and our school was one of the schools selected,” Hodge said. “They interviewed us, fell in love with our kids and they got the camera here to feature us.

“This is a huge opportunity for our kids because I think this will give exposure to our program,” she said. “I think it’s going to put us on the map as a serious sport and not a club. However, these next few weeks for us are huge as they will determine who makes the playoffs.”

Even the usually calm coach of the pair, Stinson was on edge because he knows how important this moment is for this program and the students, but he also has a little bit of concern.

“Who would have thought we would have gained this type of notoriety so quickly or even at all. It’s uplifting to know there’s interest,” Stinson said. “My concern is that some of the interest is because our program is new. Our goal is to build a program that will keep the interest of the community and the students after the newness wears off. I don’t want us to end up cast off to the side and forgotten.

“I feel like this program is a great program because it gives everyone the opportunity to play,” he said. “These kids put their everything into this, and it shows as they have increased their grades and overall productivity in school.  We want them to be appreciated.”

The HBO Vice News Tonight featuring the Colquitt County E-Sports team will air sometime in 2019.