It is playoff time for Esports. With all of the high school and college football talk, we tend to forget about Esports.
Esports participated in the first round of playoffs on November 27 and 28. Although they did not advance to the round of 32, Starr’s Mill was among the top 64 teams competing in Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo Switch.
This year marks the fourth time the team has advanced to the playoffs.
“When Esports was getting going, they needed somebody to coach,” head coach Taylor Sweeny said. “I like playing video games personally. I knew some of the kids that were interested. I stepped up and offered to fill the spot.”
In Esports, the players do not have to be present to practice. Since everything for it is online, they can play it from home and get practice in that way. The games that the players are playing are games that they are passionate about, so any time they are booting up the Nintendo Switch, they are practicing.
The team consists of five players: senior Joseph Romont, juniors Stanley Dierkes and Anton Synkov, sophomore Yanni Cannon, and freshman Ethan Kwok.
Esports is really all about repetition. Players improve by playing. To prepare for competitions the team gets together a couple of times a week to practice with their teammates in person.
The team finished the season ranked 17th.
Esports has two seasons each year, one in spring and one in fall. The Esports team does not know if they will participate in the upcoming 2024 spring season yet.