The year-old eSports Club has already achieved success after their second week of the spring season having brought home many wins. 

“The standout this week was (freshman) Deep Patel of SHS Blaze who raked in an average 456 Gold Per Minute,” eSports sponsor Danie Cowden said.

This week SHS Smash won their match against the City Lab High School Bandits, and SHS Blaze defeated the Richardson High School Reckless in League of Legends. 

Last week SHS Blue tied for second in Rocket League, and SHS Blaze tied for third in League of Legends.

“I’m a gamer and believe games are a way of building teamwork, comradery and critical thinking skills,” Cowden said.

eSports are highly complex and require lots of coordination and quick thinking. Playing games has also been shown to improve cognitive ability.

“I joined because I like playing games, wanted to make friends that share the same interests,” freshman Cole Davis said.

eSports provides gamers with a community of people who enjoy the same games as them. They are able to make new friends and gain gaming experience.

“When one of us is having a bad day, we don’t communicate with each other and might not play as well,” sophomore Alberto Vega said.

Teamwork and communication are key which is why the team’s practice time is necessary. Because each different player has a different role, if one team member isn’t focused it could end in a defeat.

“We don’t really have a practice day,’ sophomore Sergio Nieto said, “For practice I usually call Nicholas and Alberto and see if we can get on so we can practice a little bit. We play for a good two, three hours. That way we can improve.”

SHS has a total of five eSports teams, SHS Blue, White, Smash, Blaze, and Error 404. The teams are based on friend groups, and each team has around three players.

“Competitions are through PlayVS, all online. It’s an eSports platform,” Cowden said. “If we have teams make it to the playoffs we will live stream it.”