Introduction
In my time here at Hillcrest High School, there weren’t many extracurricular activities I was really interested in. So throughout my entire high school experience, I was just never involved. Until one day in sophomore year (I can’t remember the exact date), I was walking upstairs to head to my next class, and that’s when I saw a sign for E-Sports tryouts. I loved playing games and my parents wanted me to get out of the house more, so I said, “Sure, why not?”
1-1: First Steps
I’ve been gaming ever since the beginning. I’ve played many different games over the years. Whether it was Nintendo, Sega, Xbox, PlayStation, and more. But I’ve always played games for the fun of it, this would be my very first time playing games competitively, especially for a school. So naturally, I was pretty nervous. At the time, it was a brand new club at the school, so there wasn’t a particular place we could try out at, so we just played in Coach Murray’s classroom. At the time there were only two options, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (What I play right now). Before I started playing, I was very, very nervous. I was worried that I came here for nothing, but little did I know, I ended up doing WAY better than I thought and made the team.
1-2: Competition
Some time after tryouts were finished, we were already beginning to compete online against other Esports teams from other schools around our area. Majority of online matches we’ve had, we’ve won with no problems! (Until we had internet issues..) Before I knew it, we were already competing in person at our first tournament at Evergreen Park High School. Despite how many other schools there were and me still not that competitive yet, I was ready to win. We didn’t win unfortunately but we did make it to the grand finals! Pretty good for a first tournament, if I do say so myself. (Though we still perform better in the online matches) But we’ve won other tournaments like Conference and District Invitationals. That’s actually where Coach Murray gave me my title as “The #1 Mario Kart Player in the District”.
1-3: Experience Overall
My experience in Esports thus far has been really fun. Through Esports I made new friends, learned to communicate with others better, had lots of fun, and represented the school. Joking around during practices and during tournaments, the comedic bus rides to and from, all of them are such memorable moments. Esports was an amazing experience, and I’d recommend it to all gamers out there looking to be more involved and to show more school spirit. Because of my time on the Hillcrest Esports team, when I go to college, I want to go to college and continue to play competitively in Esports and further my skills. I have to thank Coach Murray for making this experience so memorable. The school I’m going to doesn’t have a Mario Kart team currently, I might see if I can start my own.
