By Madeline Stratman
Within Northwest High School, there are many varieties of clubs and organizations to join, one being eSports or electronic sports.
“Anybody can join,” said coach Matt Hinkel. “There’s new kids that come in, and have never played the games before. There’s kids that come back every year to play during the season and enjoy it, and competitive kids that put hours into games. It’s definitely a range of skill levels and people.”
Practice is every Tuesday and Thursday in Hinkel’s room and business teacher Ann Purdy’s room. On some of those days, students are competing virtually.
“We have five different games within the year.” Hinkel said. “The first semester is Rocket League, Overwatch and Starcraft. In second semester, we play Super Smash Ultimate and League of Legends.”
“I’ve always been interested in gaming, and I thought joining was a good way to meet new friends,” said Sarah Clark, a sophomore that enjoys playing Rocket League.
“Competitions have been good.” Hinkel said. “We have students that are getting better every day. I would say that we have the top one or two Rocket League teams in the state right now.” After winning a championship last year for Rocket League, they’re hoping for another.
There are many ways to be involved in eSports. “One thing we’ve done is stream on Twitch, which is a gaming streaming service,” said Hinkel. “We’ve been trying to promote our competitions on social media, so there’s kids making graphics.” If students don’t want to compete, they still have options to be involved with eSports, and there may be future benefits for joining.
“The last couple years, kids got scholarships to different colleges,” said Hinkel. “Many colleges in the state are offering scholarships.”
Clark’s best moments in eSports are the practices they have and
being able to mess around and have fun with everyone in the activity.
Hinkel’s decision to coach eSports was simple. Even though he might not know the games as well as the eSport members, he’s has always enjoyed playing video games.
“I definitely recommend eSports for anybody, whether you’re good at gaming or not,” said Clark. “It’s always a lot of fun and the people there are friendly.”
Overall, eSports is always open for new players, and is always trying to have fun while competing and playing games.
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