New E-sports team undefeated so far this season

E-sports+team+members+practice+after+school+for+the+upcoming+competition.++This+is+the+first+year+for+the+teams+at+SHS+as+well+as+all+of+the+GISD+high+schools.

courtesy of Nicholas Bade

E-sports team members practice after school for the upcoming competition. This is the first year for the teams at SHS as well as all of the GISD high schools.

First Name Unknown Veer, Writer

The new E-sports team SHS Alpha is undefeated in its first season of the League of Legends and is heading to the state semi-finals Tuesday, Jan. 28. Sister team SHS Omega ended the season in eighth place. 

While E-sports has been around for several years, this is the first year for the GISD to sponsor teams at all seven high schools as well as the CTC.  It is as competitive as any other sport and is played using video games. 

“E-sports obviously has been around for a little while already, and we have been talking it about as a district to get E-sports to the high school level,” E-sports sponsor Nicholas Bade said. “Eventually we decided as a district to go with a third party, PlayVS, that is a governed body that works with the National Federation of High Schools.”

Both SHS Alpha and SHS Omega play League of Legends, which is a five-player, team-based strategic game where two teams play against each other.

“League of Legends is a MOBA game, which is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena,” Bade said. “That means we have five players on one side and five players on another side. There is a big map in between them, and they go against each other.” 

Like any other competition, League of Legends has a set of rules the team has to follow to win as well as fulfill their role with precise coordination.

“There are three lanes that you can go into in this game, and in those lanes one-half is yours and the other half is your opponents, and you have these towers periodically through those lanes,” Bade said. “The goal of the game is to defeat the other team’s towers enough to where you can get to their base and then defeat their base.” 

Despite the fact it was SHS Alpha’s first year to complete, they have had a very successful season.

“When we played there was a lot of pressure because it was our first season,” SHS Alpha team member senior Tom Nguyen said. “There are 14 matches in a season, and we won all of them going undefeated, and now we are in the playoffs which started on January 7th.”

Nguyen said communication is a key part of the team’s success.

”We practice twice a week, in which we go against other teams or SHS Omega and try to improve our calling out skills as well as our roles,” he said.

There are five roles in the game: Marksman, support, jungler, tank and mid laner. Each team member specializes in one role, and each role brings something different to the table for the team.

“I play attack damage carry which is ADC. It is a marksman role,” Nguyen said. “A marksman does auto-attack to the enemies and deals attack damage. They usually have the most damage per second. I like it because I can carry the team with that role.”

Just like an athletic team, E-sports relies on teamwork.

“I wanted to compete because I like the competitiveness,” Nguyen said. “I like the adrenaline rush that it gives me. We managed to stay undefeated because we have trust in each other and we have strong teamwork.”