The ever-growing e-sports team at OHS has proven itself to be one of the most successful clubs in the school, achieving great amounts of success by implementing strategies that uplift players as a team and individually.
Many people do not realize the meticulous planning and effort the coaches and players put in to get the e-sports team into the position where they are one of the most successful sports on campus.
“You have to practice, set up strategies, and set up your team column, things along those lines. So you actually have to play together, where most people think of it as just having fun. We have to take it seriously,” said Tom DeVito, e-sports assistant coach.
When playing games that require teamwork, it is important to foster a community that trusts each other, so they have the best chance at succeeding in activities such as tournaments.
“If you don’t synergize well with each other, it’s not going to work out. If you don’t trust each other’s calls, it’s not gonna work out. So I mean, team bonding, like readiness, is one of the biggest things we have to talk and deal with. The way we do that is literally get on games and play with each other and then maybe hang out outside,” DeVito said.
Through all of this hard work, the e-sports team has achieved many goals that show the importance of hard work and discipline.
“We play League of Legends. We were the state champs two years ago in League. We play Marvel Rivals, where we’re currently ranked number four. We play Rocket League, and we also play Super Smash Bros,” Devito said.
While team-oriented games are important, solo games where players have to hone in their skills and push themselves also hold an important role in e-sports.
“We have players that play multiple games. But the majority of the time, when it comes to the tougher games with a higher learning curve, like League of Legends, it has a pretty high learning curve when it comes to it, only certain players play that,” DeVito said.
While they may not be jumping hurdles, the challenges they face involve strategy and psychology as they work together to improve their team skills
“It’s more of a mental game than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still physical; something can go wrong: you can hurt your wrists and things along those lines. But the majority of the time, it’s more about the mental game, preparing to be strong mentally than it is the physical aspect,” DeVito said.
Most e-sports players have been playing for years, honing their skills in specific games so they can focus on their specialty in tournaments.
“I’m just really good at Rocket League,” said Carter McGriff, freshman. “I’ve been playing since I was like seven.”
Team building in e-sports is complicated when it comes to specialized games such as Rocket League, where every person has a different role to play in the match’s outcome.
“We get to know each other and get to know how each one plays,” McGriff said.
With the complications in these team games, sometimes, there are miscommunications between players.
“Overcommiting, like when we have 3 people in the field, and sometimes two of us go, and that leaves the last person, and they can’t do anything,” McGriff said.
Most people are not aware that e-sports operates like many traditional sports, having tryouts and being split up into varsity and JV.
“We have varsity and JV teams for all four games, we have tryouts, and then we have competition to see who our top players are for the varsity team, and for the JV teams. It’s the same type of thing,” said Jeff Williams, e-sports coach.
The preparation for each game is entirely unique and really shows how diverse the e-sports team is.
“Depends on the games because they are all different, some of them are 5v5 or 6v6, so we’re really talking about competing as a team, where Super Smash is an individual game. We’re working on their skills, whether it is a team game or an individual game,” Williams said.
In terms of competition, e-sports is reaching for the stars to set up its players for success.
“In terms of competition, trying to go to different tournaments and talk to other coaches at the college level and get to the pro level to see what we can do better,” Williams said.
