As part of the Royal Navy’s ongoing project to make recovering from an illness, mental health condition or an injury better, some new recovery courses have been introduced this year to try to encourage everyone who is medically unfit, to take part in something to assist their recovery journey.
The latest course was an E-Sports, ‘Call of Duty’ event between the Royal Navy and the Army in Plymouth. Sailors from across the Senior Service went up against soldiers from 29 Commando Regiment, based at Plymouth’s Royal Citadel.
Able Seaman ‘Was’ Hollis from the Personnel Support Group in Devonport Naval Base, came up with the idea for the contest, and was readily assisted by Dean Linstead from Belong Arena in Plymouth City Centre where the competition took place. ‘Was’ said:
“The E-sports week was unique and benefitted everyone, who due to injuries have been unable to perform many physical tasks,” said ‘Was’.
“I could see that the event improved everyone’s mental wellbeing and was also a huge boost to our morale. Throughout the week there was some great teamwork as well as a competitive edge for all. Everyone wanted to win, and everyone put the work in.
“It required bags of attention from each individual and progress was persistent each day. Many became better at in-game strategies and left the week with a sense of pride acknowledging their efforts and progress.”
‘Was’ who is medically downgraded himself, added:
“In a sense it helped distract me from my own thoughts for a while, and kept me focused on an objective rather than sitting in my cabin, it encouraged me to socialise, work with others and help build the confidence to lead the team.”
Commander Gordon Jones, Chair of the Royal Navy Video Gaming and Esports Association visited the event to play some games with the Royal Navy team. He said how important E-Sports and video games are to help people feel connected and part of something, especially when they are in recovery.
He added: “Having recently been assigned to recovery myself, I’ve found that my contacts in E-Sports have significantly helped my mental health, especially in terms of being able to speak to people who share a common interest. The games themselves were exciting and it’s been good seeing the way the teams took the opportunities given to them to improve their skills and communicate during the run up to the event.”
The teams spent three days of intense online training, with the event coming to a dramatic finale with a ‘Best of 7 fight out’, which was live streamed on Twitch by members of the Royal Navy E-Sports Team. The Army put up a spirited fight but could not overcome the ‘mad skills’ of the Royal Navy, who took the trophy with four straight wins.
Army’s team leader Sergeant Ryan Donahue from 29 Commando said:
“We’ve had a brilliant week. The lads have really enjoyed doing something different and it’s great to all be together in a gaming arena, rather than playing separately online. Despite it being an Army/Navy event, we have all mixed and had lots of banter, and the guys at Belong Gaming Arena went out of their way to accommodate us.
“We may have lost this time, but since we started training for this event, we have procured an on-Base E-gaming room at the Citadel, so we’ll be much better prepared for the next event. The Royal Navy team were on fire, so it was a well-deserved win.”
