You walk into a room full of competition. Video games coming from almost every screen, every gamer’s dream. The E-sports team at GHS is a gamer’s dream, as they allow you to play video games competitively while repping your school.
The popular games played by the club include “Valorant,” “Overwatch” and “Clash Royale.” This year, “Halo Infinite” was added.
The E-sports team is comprised of 84 different competitors at this moment. Each competitor is split into one of 13 different teams, and each team is built on a variety of skill levels. Knowing that there are still more than half of the E-sport season left in this school year, there is still plenty of time left to join and space to be filled.
“I am expecting there to be around 200 students who participate this year,” E-sports coach Mrs. Kimberly Ingraham-Beck said. “There are a lot of more spots to be filled.”
Practices look a little different for the E-sports team considering there are 84 teammates. Their practices take place every day after school, but with different teams practicing on different scheduled days. They start matches as soon as school gets out and compete until 4:45 or 5:00p.m, but sometimes matches last longer.
“The practices aren’t very intense but can be at times,” sophomore Zachary Olds said. “I find these practices exciting because I get to enjoy competing with my friends.”
A majority of the competitive matches take place online. The teams have been taken to a few in-person tournaments too. A recent event was in Scribner, Nebraska. Other than that, the state games will take place online, and the team will compete from GHS.
“Our biggest win so far was junior Jackson Selfridge who was ranked third in our division in ‘Super Smash Bros,’” Ingraham-Beck said. “He had to play against Kearney (Ranked #1, #2, and #4) and he beat them all, 2-0.”