Rocket League, Valorant, Fortnite, Ten Minute Chess, and Overwatch are video games played every day by students at Norwin High. Now, students can play these games as part of the Norwin High School experience through the eSports Club.
“eSports has become more than just a hobby for me. It’s a community and a space where competition, teamwork, and strategy come together in an exciting way,” eSports participant Arda Alikaya(11) said.
Norwin eSports, created in 2022, is starting again with its winter competitions. In these eSports competitions, Norwin and other schools compete head-to-head in competitions within these video games. Competitors play through the PlayVS League, and can often see who their competition is about five days in advance.
Players log onto the PlayVS website and then link their account on the platform for whatever game they may be competing in. Students at Norwin High can compete in one or more games. Once connected, one of the competitors will invite the selected rival player or team-often based on rank from the other school into their ‘queue,’ which is practically a setup for the games to happen. However, when competitors don’t have a select matchup with a certain school, they can just enter a public queue, which matches them up with a random school in their conference. Players can compete all from the school and room 122, and this year the club is growing with a total of 25 competitors now!
Tournament play is based on how many competitors enroll in the specific game. The tournament can contain people from all over the country. This fall season Norwin is participating in tournaments with the games Valorant, Overwatch 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and 10-minute Chess. Also upcoming following the conclusion of the fall league is the playoffs, where gamers can win and advance eventually to the state championship.
“No Norwin teams have gotten far enough yet to go to an in-person playoff game,” said club advisor Mr. Cicconi. “With so many teams it is very difficult to make it to that level. Maybe someday!”
The games played
A very popular game around the world and within the club is Rocket League. Rocket League is a game where a range of 1-3 players can play on a team. Everyone in the game gets to control a car. This year thus far in the fall league Norwin is ranked 7th out of 51 teams in Rocket League.
Displayed above is a YouTube video doing a general breakdown of how Rocket League work
Another game is Fortnite which is a shooter game with cartoon-like characters. However, in high school, the students only compete in one aspect of the game which is zone wars. Zone wars is a slow closing circle where one team must defeat another, in order to win the game. Headed into the winter, the Knights were 71st out of 140 teams following the fall league.
Following Fortnite is Chess, more specifically online 10 Chess. Norwin Chess competes online using Chess.com, which sets up a rapid-fire chess game that takes ten minutes to transact. This year the Knights are 5th out of 16 teams following a great start from the fall regular season.
The Knights also compete in Valorant. Valorant is an online 5v5 shooter game, where the objective is to either complete the objectives or eliminate the other team. Norwin is ranked 3rd out of the 7 teams in their conference.
The final game that the Knights compete in is Overwatch. Overwatch is a two-team shooter game. Players will select a character otherwise known as a ‘hero’ that has a niche or unique amount of abilities. Each team is tasked with completing certain objectives or eliminating the other team. The Knights are off hot in Overwatch this year ranked 3rd out of 50 teams in their conference.
