Norwin Esports won two titles in December. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, the Norwin Esports Overwatch 2 team defeated Scotch Plains Fanwood High School online at Norwin High School and was named the PlayVS Mid-Atlantic Region Champion for Overwatch 2, with over 50 teams in the conference. On Sunday, Dec. 15, the Norwin Esports Valorant team competed against Mohawk Area High School online at Norwin High School for the Pennsylvania Esports State Championship. After winning two out of three games, the Norwin team was named the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Esports Association’s District 2 Keystone State Champions for the game Valorant.
The winning Valorant team consisted of seniors Korbin Born, Grace Fleckenstein, Vincent Matthews, Braden Rose, and sophomore Joshua Elliott.
“I am very proud of how quickly our team skills grew,” said sophomore Joshua Elliott. “For example, in the middle of the season, we had an embarrassing loss to Franklin Regional, but by the end of the season the tables turned, and we beat them with ease.”
The winning Overwatch 2 team consisted of seniors Sean Cardiff, Connor Fisher, Conner Harper, Joey Klass, Landon Kozak, Parker Wills, and juniors John Holland and Jakub Sadowski.
“Mr. Cicconi and I are most proud of how all of our esports teams rallied this season and made it into the playoffs,” said Esports club advisor Mr. Brandon Salany. “Our Rocket League team unfortunately got knocked out in the 2nd of 4 rounds. Our Chess team made it to the finals of 50 other teams in their conference and just missed winning in the final round on the final “table” with a costly blunder. That leaves our Overwatch 2 and also our Valorant team that was able to impressively bring home Norwin’s first 2 esports titles this season. Epic performances by both teams throughout the season and playoffs. They communicated extremely well and adapted quickly with clever character changes to match specific map selections and their opponents’ chosen line-up.”
”I would like to improve the view of Esports because there are many people who I think would love to play, but are scared to be seen as weird,” said Elliott. “I loved how inclusive everyone has been. I am the only sophomore that played during the finals, but I felt like I was a part of their group the moment we started playing.”
The Esports season will begin again in February, and anyone interested in joining should contact Mr. Salany in Room 210 or Mr. Cicconi in Room 203.
“Our team rosters for Valorant and Overwatch are occupied heavily by seniors,” said Mr. Salany. “This means that next school year’s teams will look very different than in the Fall season. This also provides an awesome opportunity for interested students to join our ranks now to grow alongside some very talented players into starting positions they could hold for their remaining years at Norwin.”
