What is Esports? Well, ‘E’ short for electronic, is a sport that you play, basketball, football, soccer etc, but instead of competing in reality, you compete digitally. HHS now has a whole classroom dedicated to the digital game. In their 7th hour class, its official title is gaming concepts. It trains students for the after school program and teaches them how to have a career in gaming. You can choose Esports as a class or join the club afterschool with good grades. 

Thomas Gal, Marketing and History teacher, was introduced to the idea to teach the class spring of 2019 but, because of COVID it was interrupted and did not resume until later in the year of 2020. Before they were interrupted they were in their first season of three; Fall, Winter, and Spring. Monday through Thursday they meet after school to practice and play for seasons. 

“Sophomores through seniors can take Gaming Concepts as long as they take innovative tech; Innovative tech is the conditions to join gaming concepts,” Gal said, “ The class teaches students how to be professional gamers. We teach diet, hygiene, hand exercises, strategy, and communications.” 

Logan Borisch, junior, is relatively new to the after-school club, joining the Monday, November 8th. He originally joined esports to play chess. Which is how he entered and won a tournament Wednesday, December 8th. He was later introduced to league of legends which he found out he was really good at.

“Originally I joined esports to play chess, that’s how I got to play chess” Borisch said, “Then I was introduced to League Legends by the club. Anthony, the captain of the team, told me that I was really good and should continue to participate in the club, which encouraged me to stay.”  

With a team there’s always a leader, president, captain etc. For Esports, the captain of their team is senior Anthony Martinez. For the team it was “no brainer” for him to be captain. Before joining the club he had been playing League of Legends for 5 years, in the club, he’s been playing the longest. 

“It just means [being captain] that when I give people advice they (usually) listen and learn from my input,” Martinez said, “I don’t put much thought into being captain because it matters more in terms of playing competitively than as a position of power, so it’s just about good calls and better gameplay.”

The club is currently a little under in players. For games like overwatch you need a certain amount of players to play in tournaments.

“We can’t get any competitive matches in,” Gabriel Elder, junior said, “the fact that we don’t have enough people for overwatch as of right now and the people who are currently playing  League [of legends] we don’t think they’re ready to play competitively just yet. We have to get them ready and prepared for a competitive setting.”