Starting Monday, 20 of North American League of Legends top Challenger ladder players will have a chance to prove themselves in a combinelike competition called Scouting Grounds, hosted by League of Legends developer Riot Games. The competition will bring together four players from each of the five roles -- top lane, jungle, mid lane, AD carry and support -- and will have professional teams in attendance, including Echo Fox and Team Liquid, to scout the competitors.The requirements for competing are simple. Players must be 16 years of age, the required minimum age for the League of Legends Challenger Series, by January 2017 and must not have played more than two matches in any professional league (Challenger Series or the League Championship Series) in their career.Top lanePlayer to watch: Maxime Maxtrobo Delangis GallichandHailing from Quebec City, Québec, Canada, Maxime Maxtrobo Delangis Gallichand is among the small number of Canadian players who are high on the American-dominated Challenger ladder. He is currently ranked 44 overall on the North American Challenger ladder and tells ESPN that he often queues as fill, meaning he plays all roles within the game.His competitive experience is limited, having only played with amateur team DatZit Gaming Fire in two invitational tournaments, as well as Challenger Series spring qualifiers, at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016. In the latter event, his team lost in the first round to Team Liquid Academy. But despite the lack of experience, Maxtrobo says hes committed to competing in League of Legends and recently dropped out of school to pursue the career full-time.Ive been playing a lot of things in solo queue, Maxtrobo told ESPN. Sometimes, I just put fill because I want a faster queue time, but I realized around a year ago that the role I was the best at was top, and I did a lot to improve during the year.Excluding champions from other roles, Maxtrobos highest played top lane champions in the game are Gnar, Jayce, Riven, Illaoi, and Ekko. Despite putting a lot of time into many of these champions, Maxtrobo tells ESPN he doesnt really have a best champion and that he likes to play aggressively in lane regardless of champion pick.I just like to carry and play aggressive in lane, he says. I just play what the coach tells me to play. I have a big champ pool.JunglePlayer to watch: Andrew BmxSpecks SpeckertPrior to Friday, Andrew BmxSpecks Speckert was not slated to attend the Scouting Grounds event. However, due to a last-minute personal emergency for another player on the list, BmxSpecks will compete as a jungler at the event.Aside from streaming and coaching, BmxSpecks gained his notoriety when he vowed to reach rank one in the League of Legends subreddit in April 2015, despite only being Master tier at the time and Diamond 4 the week before that. In his post, he noted that many pros laughed at him or didnt take him seriously. But less than a week later, he made Challenger and eventually hit rank one in the 2015 season.At the end of this season, he achieved rank 41 using a diverse pool of jungle champions with a heavy favorite of Elise. Earlier in the year, he competed on Zenith eSports in the Challenger Series Summer Qualifiers, falling out in the first round against a team with inexperienced Challenger players. But if he can apply his determination from 2015 to the competitive scene, the inclusion of BmxSpecks could make for an interesting Scouting Grounds.Mid lanePlayer to watch: Seungmin Strompest LeeOriginally born in South Korea, Seungmin Strompest Lee moved to the United States at 2 years old and has lived in several places in the States. Currently in Southern California, the 17-year-old Korean-American player, who is still a senior in high school, has recently become known for his Ryze play on the Challenger ladder. Like many of his peers, however, his competitive experience lacks depth, something he hopes Scouting Grounds gives him the chance to improve on.Strompest tells ESPN he has played League of Legends since spring of 2013, at age 13, and earned the Challenger rank roughly a year later. He now has two Challenger accounts, both of which ended up in the top 30 of the ladder (rank 26 and 28 respectively) before the end of the season last week.My aspirations for competitive League at this moment is just to hopefully make it into NA [League Championship Series] and then prove myself to be a good mid laner, he tells ESPN. I dont think I can become the best instantly, so Im aiming for what is directly in front of me at the moment. Realistically, Id probably have to go through NA [Challenger Series] first before I even get to enter NA LCS.Prior to competing in Scouting Grounds, Strompest competed with Serpentis eSports White and Insomnia eSports. On the latter team, he met a player named Dat Kitzuo Nguyen who helped him develop his Ryze play. While neither team found success, Strompest said that both have given him the ability to learn communication skills in a competitive environment.AD carryPlayer to Watch: Matthew Deftly ChenEighteen-year-old Matthew Deftly Chen of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, has begun to make his mark on the League of Legends amateur scene even before Scouting Grounds. Like BmxSpecks, he was not originally planning to attend Scouting Grounds, but due to the revocation of Tristan xPecake C?té-Lalumières invite for alleged in-game trolling, Deftly received the invite for the event.For the past three months, Deftly has worked with a new iteration of Cloud9 Challenger that will bid to compete in the North American Challenger Series next spring. Deftly has also competed on Denial eSports North American roster and briefly subbed in on Eanix during the summer Challenger Series.In season 4, I was able to hit Challenger and start playing for amateur teams, which never amounted to anything, Deftly told ESPN. Eventually, the lack of strong teams taking interest led me to quit in season 5, where I later returned and am in the position I am now. Im extremely happy to be where I am now and am hoping to prove myself whenever an opportunity arises.Deftly earned some of his notoriety during his time trialing for DatZit Gaming. During the trial process, one of the teams scrimmages was leaked to the public, featuring Deftly obtaining a pentakill on Sivir.SupportPlayer to watch: Ryan Whyin KaraszkiewiczKnown as cute pupper irl on the ladder, 17-year-old Ryan Whyin Karaszkiewicz of Michigan had his first season in Challenger this season after being Diamond rank in seasons four and five. Whyin has competed on Sain eSports in both Spring and Summer Challenger Series qualifiers this year, but has failed to make it into the series.During his Spring run in the Challenger qualifier, he supported well-known AD carry Marko Prototype Sosnicki. 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Real Madrid needed a late goal by substitute Jese Rodriguez to earn a 3-2 victory at Valencia to stay in third place and three points behind its title rivals. Concussions have been a front-and-center issue in sports for a few years, but generally the conversation has been focused on professional football. However, the injury is just as likely to affect female athletes, even in noncontact sports.Joanne Gerstner, a sports journalist in-residence at Michigan States College of Communication Arts and Sciences, alongside sports neurologist Jeffrey S. Kutcher, has written a book that examines the breadth of the concussion problem and gives practical advice for youth athletes and their parents.We asked Gerstner about the book Back in the Game: Why Concussion Doesnt Have to End Your Athletic Career.Note: Gerstner is a former editor for espnW.espnW: What was your goal with the book?Joanne Gerstner: Were trying to move people from fear of concussions [and] not acknowledging concussions to a more sophisticated conversation where we acknowledge the risk, but also the benefit of sport and look at the best ways for all of us to proceed safely and have fun.espnW: How do you frame the concussion issue in terms of women and girls?JG: Im really learning that the discussion about concussion in the general publics mind is a very male-dominated thing. They hear concussions being talked about in terms of football or hockey or boxing. But now, being out talking to people, Im hearing, Oh my gosh I didnt realize could get concussions like guys can.At first I was like, Hmm, we all have brains, we can get concussions. But people dont watch womens sports like they watch mens sports. The lawsuits have been directed more at mens entities than womens entities. It stands to reason they would associate concussions with a guys thing, but its really not.espnW: Dont girls and women get more concussions, statistically?JG: Physiologically were different from men, especially in terms of neck strength, especially during the teenage years. So if we are in a collision, say for soccer or basketball, our necks and our heads might jostle more than a guys would. A hormonal state, say the time of the month, can affect your susceptibility to concussions. And women tend to get more migraines than men.Add that all together and there are factors that show women might have a propensity to have concussions. It all comes down to, who are you, what sport are you playing and where is your body in all of this? Because we are all truly individuals and I try to shy away from general statements, but girls can get concussions during cheerlleading, gymnastics, soccer, basketball -- so the risk is there and we need to be aware of it.ddddddddddddespnW: How do we balance wanting our kids to develop independence and a spirit of adventure while still mitigating the risk of concussions?JG: I think you should be worrying about it as much as we worry about anything else with your child. Obviously you dont want your child falling out of a tree and breaking her arm. If shes playing lacrosse, you want to make sure she has proper equipment and good coaching and awareness.And its not just awareness, its that we are going to act on concussion. So if someone is suspected of being hurt, we take them out that we evaluate them. And if your daughter does get hurt, that she has the empowerment and the courage to say, Hey, I dont feel right, take me out? Or if she has a teammate she can say, Hey, Coach, my teammate doesnt seem right, can we take a look at her?Its about taking care of each other and not saying its a bump on the head or feeling obligated to play because Mom and Dad really want me to play. Its about moving away from fear of concussion to looking at it critically and being prepared for it.espnW: Did anything surprising pop up in the reporting for the book?JG: To me the most revelatory thing was talking to the parents about how nuanced a concussion is. I never knew people could have a concussion and not present with any symptoms because thats the way their body works.espnW: Cheerleading -- is that the sport where female athletes suffer the greatest number of injuries?JG: Its murky because a lot of states dont acknowledge cheer as a varsity sport. So getting numbers on cheerleading is challenging compared to basketball, where everyone acknowledges its a sport for both genders.Anecdotally the numbers for cheerleading are high. And just think about the stunting, where you throw a flier up five, 10 feet in the air, you do a flip, you come down. Arms, legs and heads can collide, so its not safe. Its really been fascinating to me -- some people are like, Oh, its cheerleading, how can they get hurt? Have you watched cheerleading lately? Its gymnastics mixed with high-level dance mixed with Cirque du Soleil. Absolutely they can get hurt.Ive talked to cheerleaders at the college level and the pressure on them to do bigger, badder tricks is there. ' ' '