Redhawks students scored several wins in the district’s eSports tournament at the CTE Center including victories in Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, and 2K.
Junior Hezekiah Lee was the winner of one of his favorite games, Super Smash Bros. The game is one he has spent around 3,000 hours on.
“Super Smash Bros. as a game specifically, is a collaboration of multiple large titles (ex: Mario, Kirby, Zelda) and their characters, selected to battle out against one another,” Lee said “I only competed in Smash, but you can choose more than one game if it’s not in the same session. I chose Super Smash Bros. because I’m more confident that I can compete in a game that I’ve trained a lot in and it’s the only appealing game I saw out of the other games.”
The tournament is a familiar experience for Lee, who finished third out of over 20 people last year, losing to his brother in the winner’s bracket.
“There was also a large number of students from other schools in the district, which is what we were competing against, who participated with a total of around 30+ students for Super Smash Bros., and a decent number for the other games that were being held,” Lee said. “The tournament was way more competitive this year as there was for one, more students participating, and another being more skilled individuals.”
Unlike last year, this year’s tournament was one that Lee was anticipating and preparing for, which led to his Super Smash Bros win.
“For the tournament I prepared by playing against players online, offline with some other people who were playing in the tournament (mainly my brother), and during advisory in the eSports room a few days before the actual tournament took place,” Lee said.
Although the tournament was open to all, being in the eSports class is an opportunity to learn more about the tournament, the games in it, and prepare for it.
“ESports as a class is fun and we get to play games in the class which is cool,” freshman Kevin Posey said. “You got to choose the game that you wanted to compete in and I chose 2K because it’s a game I like to play and I play it a lot. I currently have 1,027 hours on 2k. I play on the weekends and I started playing six years ago.”
