Waiting for students to trickle into the Esports Dojo in Essex Junction after school one day, their sensei, Grant Patterson, looked positively monk-like seated in quiet contemplation in a dark hoodie. In one hand, he clutched an Xbox controller, ready to dispense the wisdom gained from a lifetime of gaming. Patterson's journey with video games began during his youth in Florida in the 1980s, when his aunt purchased a Nintendo console. Not long after, he witnessed his first video game tournament. "I had just encountered Street Fighter II," Patterson, 42, said of the massively popular fighting game. "It was the first time I'd seen real, head-to-head competition. That's when I learned the truth of it: The real core of a fighting game isn't that you're fighting someone else. You're fighting yourself — your biases, your patterns and fears, your own psychological responses to pressure." That's a lesson he regularly imparts at the Esports Dojo. The gaming spot serves as an afterschool training center for kids in grades 6 to 12. Tuesday through Thursday, from 2 to 6 p.m., he welcomes students from area schools to pick up the sticks, as the saying goes. Building on their existing love of gaming, Patterson strives to teach them not only to up their scores but also to apply virtual lessons learned to real life. Patterson's gaming room is packed with different consoles and PC gaming setups. As kids arrived and drifted to stations in the dojo, he explained how he vets potential students and vice versa. "It's super important that the parents understand this isn't just a place where you pay for your kid to come and play video games," he said. After an initial meeting, during which Patterson speaks to the student and their parents about their gaming history and skills they'd like to focus on, he maps out a lesson plan. "Maybe they need to work on comprehension and understanding — how every action in a game has an equal and opposite reaction. It's not just button mashing," he said. "Or maybe they need to game with other kids and be social and learn from their peers." One of Patterson's young charges, an Essex Middle School student named John Coffey, was playing Street Fighter 6, a game he's grown to love during his sessions at the dojo. With a deft flick of his thumb on the toggle of the…