The eSports Teams from District 230 Amos Alozo Stagg and Victor J. Andrew High Schools recently competed in the statewide 52-school IHSA tournament and captured medals in three categories.

The IHSA tournament featured competitions across five events: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and Rocket League.

This marks the fourth consecutive year District 230 eSports has secured state hardware, highlighted by two championship titles and another podium finish:

• State champions, undefeated Stagg junior Yusef Hassan (captain), junior Mohamed Ahmed, sophomore Alex Lisowski, senior Isaac Ferniza, senior John Valdes, and freshman Abdullah Ahmed took home the state title in Super Smash Brothers

• State Champion Stagg senior Ryan McNulty repeated his success, earning his second consecutive State Champion title in Madden 

• 4th Place Super Smash Bros. Andrew T-Bolts battled hard to secure a 4th Place finish, officially bringing home a State medal: sophomore Nathan Beitia, senior Joseph Schultz (captain), sophomore Gerald Udarbe, sophomore Cody Truong, and junior Owen Murray

Just missing the podium…

• Stagg Rocket League earned 5th place at State
• Stagg Mario Kart 8 took 5th place at State
• Andrew Mario Kart squad secured 7th Place in State

Stagg eSports sponsor Jonathan McGreal said, “The high school eSports scene is well-established and pretty competitive. We developed a strong culture at Stagg and continue to carry it over the years. We train up players with strong mentality, good communication, and analytical skills. There are many levels to competition; we just do our best to maximize each one.”

Andrew sponsor Christopher Swick is excited about the team’s future, “Our Crew team looks strong as they have been together for two years now. We lost our Senior Captain Joe Schultz, but we already have a freshman from this year ready to fill his spot. Exciting times for the Andrew eSports teams.”

According to the Network of Academic and Scholastic eSports Federations, eSports is also known as electronic sports. Esports is a form of competition facilitated through computer gaming. Most commonly, esports takes the form of organized, multiplayer online video game competitions. These competitions often incorporate live broadcasts with commentary and award prize money to competitors. Esports is also one of the fastest-growing sports in the world.