Novato High School became the first school in Marin to have an eSports team last year and now these teams are continuing both with the school and beyond. With these new teams already having won games for the school, it is interesting to see video games continue to grow as a sport.

Novato High School only has a League of Legends team, a Rocket League team, and a Fortnite team. Yet, outside of school some students have started their own Overwatch team. These teams, excluding the Fortnite team, are very skilled and have even begun winning games and tournaments against other schools and teams. 

The Novato High Rocket League team, which started last year, has been going strong through this pandemic. Now allowed to practice and play from home, the team can still compete remotely. 

Chris Perazzo and Evan Springer described the experience of continuing with eSports through the pandemic.

“Before the pandemic we had to go to school to play with the team in the computer lab. Now we can just play from home which is easier,” said Perazzo.

“I really like the atmosphere of being able to play the game (Rocket League) with my friends and have it kinda be a sport,” said Springer. “Hopefully we can have eSports get even bigger by the time I graduate.” 

This new idea of eSports is catching on quickly with over 500 high schools participating in California. With a large amount of students playing video games in their free time, this will only continue to grow in the coming years.

“Hopefully over time these teams can even grow more momentum,” Perazzo says.

Outside of school, another team has assembled for Overwatch, a team-based first person shooter game, made up of Novato High School juniors and seniors. Sam Rhineheart and Niko Stratigos, two players on the team, shared some details about the team and league.

Rhineheart talked about how this league provided an opportunity to win money if they finished first in their league. So far, they have won 4 out of their 5 games. 

“We are a really strong team and we could have won the game we lost but we were missing one of our teammates,” Rhineheart added. “Hopefully we can still get first place in our league.”

With eSports teams starting up both in school and outside of school for high school students, the popularity of eSports will only continue to grow. With the billion dollar industry rapidly appealing to younger kids, only time will show how far this goes.