By Jessie Ramcharran
The Hood esports team has officially kicked off its season after placing ninth in the nation at the Summer Showdown tournament.
Esports is competitive gaming where each game has its own league. Hood esports participates in the Division III New England Collegiate Conference and the East Coast Conference, which is a Division II Conference.
“It’s a good way for kids who don’t play normal sports to compete and get that competitive aspect out of something, and especially now since basically all sports are canceled, it’s a great opportunity for us to make our name known,” said Nate Burnett, one of the captains of the Rocket League team.
The esports program at Hood started in the spring of 2019 with just a few games such as Overwatch, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros.
“I have a policy that we don’t play any games that’s excessively violent or misogynistic in themes,” esports coach Christopher Leonard said.
There are now 30 students on the team, and the game library has expanded to also include Fortnite, League of Legends, Madden football, Overwatch, Rocket League and Valiant.
“My goal when I took this job was to make Hood one of the top 25 Esports in the nation, in college athletics,” Leonard said.
Hood has a gaming event on Thursday nights called a Ball Brawl for the game Rocket League where players compete with colleges like UCLA, Alabama, Davenport, Central Methodist University, Howard Community College, and New Mexico State University.
There were preseason games and New England Collegiate Conference placements that occurred last week for the upcoming tournaments. The first preseason game for Fortnite was on Sept. 14, where Hood placed second in the nation.
Fortnite and Madden are played and streamed every Monday night on PlayVS, a website created to operate as a server for Esports teams across the country. The players, on average, are active five nights a week.
PlayVS is one of the many sponsors for esports. This sponsorship has $175,000 worth of scholarship money for students.
“We’re pretty excited for the students, that they’re going to have an opportunity to get a chunk of that money to help pay for school,” Leonard said.
Some of the games are even nationally televised. An upcoming game of Rocket League against New England College will be professionally cast on Oct. 16.
The esports season runs from now until November. With the exception of Fortnite, which runs until Dec. 12.
Due to COVID-19, students can’t be on campus in the esports arena located in the basement of Coblentz Hall. Nevertheless, since esports is an online gaming team, students can still play from their homes and dorm rooms.
“It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, a lot of teamwork, and communication as well, especially with everything recently going online and not being on campus,” said Kris Kaarid, the captain of the Overwatch team. “But it doesn’t stop esports because we can all play online from our own set-ups at home and in dorms.”
Not only has the esports team allowed students to play video games competitively, but also gave students the opportunity to create new friendships.
“Esports has allowed me to meet some new people and form a bond throughout the teams,” said Jack Wilder, another member of the Rocket League team.
For more information, contact Coach Leonard: Leonard@hood.edu or visit the esports
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