This past Friday afternoon, Manual’s Esports team hosted an interest meeting for people curious in joining the team for the spring season, as well as updating the winter season members on new information.
During this meeting, head coach Jordan Woosley (Physics) went over various things, such as needing updated physicals, tryouts, practices, games they play and etc.
The Esports season lasts about eight weeks, in which they compete with other schools to make it to the postseason, competing for the state championship. They play a total of seven titles, with each title having two teams that also have subs in case a player can’t make the match. As long as the time of play does not overlap, a player can be on a maximum of two teams.
The Esport team has a production team which handles their social media and live streams their matches on Twitch.
“It’s structured basically just like every other sport. There’s a weekly game that each title plays. So we will play on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays…We play all of our games [during the season] online, so we join online matches against other teams,” Woosley said.
Manual’s Esports team has their own Esports lab in the VA annex where their practices take place after school from 2:30-5 p.m., as well as some of their matches.
“We hook up our switches and we just play splatoon, practice our mechanics and our techniques,” Autumn Claxton (11, MST), Captain of the Splatoon team, said.
Some games are even held in-person. For example, last year an event was held at Bellarmine University, and they played at Trinity High School. Manual’s Esports team has even traveled to the University of Kentucky to play. Woosley hopes to host a tournament here at Manual, as well.
Although the team has won a state championship, they’ve had to ultimately face the stigmatization surrounding Esports.
“Ultimately it is a bunch of nerds playing video games in the same way that football is a bunch of football players playing football, right? It’s not just sitting down in your basement for eight hours and playing video games. It’s being a part of a team, being part of a community,” Woosley said.
If one looks beyond stereotypes, Esports provides a place where passionate, dedicated video game players can show off their skills and strength.
“Due to health conditions, I’m not really able to do contact sports and I’ve never been interested in many other sports, other than basketball anyways. I’ve always been able to play games, so I figured I’d join the team” Sheldon Finley (12, HSU) said.
Luckily for Esport players like Finley, members are also able to be a part of a team with a competitive and supporting environment, working to break down the stigma surrounding the game.
Check out tryout information below!