Following “One of our best seasons,” said Esports coach Cary Varner, the Esports teams hosted tryouts in the game lab from Jan.22nd to the 25th for League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate, and Rocket League.
League of Legends, a top-down Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) developed by Riot Entertainment and coached by Technology Assistant David Baker, hosted tryouts first on Jan.22nd.
“You’re never really out after twenty minutes [in League of Legends],” Coach Caleb Straley said, “and that’s when you get the best comebacks, when you’re down for almost thirty minutes, and suddenly you’re able to rise and crush the last ten.”
Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate, or Smash for short, is Nintendo’s side perspective brawler, a genre where two or more people fight until the other is knocked out of the arena. Every character is a crossover from other Nintendo games. Varner will coach the teams, and their tryouts were Jan.23rd and 24th.
“Smash is a quick sport, and it gives everyone a chance for individual success,” Coach Varner said, “How the system works is it’s best of five: it’s one versus one, but each team cycles players through so everyone gets a chance to play.”
Finally is Rocket League, “the most traditional sports-like [Esport], it’s soccer, but with cars. it’s the one everyone understands,” Straley said. Developed by Psyonix with coaching by Straley, their tryouts were hosted on Jan.24th and 25th.
“[Rocket League] is a nice intro to Esports and gaming, and I’ve seen some young students rise to the occasion and really hold their own against players much better than them,” Straley said.
With tryouts having recently concluded, players are now preparing for the coming season and preseason with their teams. Each sport is expected to have a game once per week until finals, and all will be streamed to the school’s Twitch channel.
“The most important part is your team,” sophomore and returning Smash player Nikolas Sexton said, “They make a big deal. Good teammates mean reliable people, people you can practice with.”
