BY KATELYN BUCHALTER
Editor in Chief
For the first time in OBHS history, the school features a competitive Esports team. The newly-formed Esports team will utilize a special facility in the recently renovated Media Center, which administration and the Board of Education unveiled Tuesday.
The team consists of approximately 30 students who play various video games, such as Super Smash Bros, Rocket League, and Overwatch. “I’ve been gaming all my life, and now that I have a chance to do it in school for a team on a competitive level gets me a little excited,” said Miguel Rivera.
Students play against other schools weekly, with different scoring methods for each game. “For Smash, we do matches with teams of three. We do rounds where each player has three lives, and one player from each team faces off in a one-on-one until a player loses their three lives,” explained Jash Prajapati. “The player that lost leaves, and the next player on the team comes on.”
Team members each have a unique way of preparing for their weekly matches. “It’s best to focus on how the person plays and what their style of playing is,” expressed Jonathan Eng. “The training room helps you learn combos or get better in movement, so I prepare there for at least 30 minutes before I go online.”
The team hosts practices at school during the week on top of the students’ independent preparations. “Practices consist of us playing each other as much as we can,” said Prajapati who has had several college offers because of the Esports program. “We’ll have a few switches set up for 1 v 1’s, and we’ll rotate every few matches to play different players.”
Some members of the program don’t actually play the games; the content creators, Corrine Liamero, Luka Dickinson, Victoria Krol, Carlos Cornish, Matthew Owusu, Thomas Mills, and Zachary Lance, promote the Esports initiative in the school and the online community. “The content creation team makes things such as logos, posts on social media (TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, etc.), and posters advertising the team,” expressed Liamero.
Along with the introduction of an entirely new activity, OBHS recently introduced a newly-renovated Media Center. The room now consists of gaming consoles and computers for the Esports team as well as other new technology. “The remodeling of the library, in my opinion, is very nice,” conveyed Eng. “It’s cool that there are a bunch of monitors, PCs, keyboards, etc. It just reminds me what a real-life gaming room experience feels like.”
Renovations for the Media Center started over the summer and lasted all the way through November. Funding for the project came from an Elementary and Secondary School Relief fund grant, which supports activities to improve student’s social-emotional well-being and academic achievement. “We are very excited about the new Esports Program at Old Bridge High School,” expressed Principal Dr. Vincent Sasso. “This program has empowered our students through a digital platform to work as a team and to embrace their passion in an inclusive activity for all!”
The Esports program at OBHS will continue to evolve. Currently, efforts are underway to possibly turn Esports into an elective for students. “I think it’s very cool that people can experience the idea of esports,” said Eng. “Sure, it may not be all just games, but at least knowing what it’s all about can really bring people together and interact with each other.”
Although Esports tryouts for the upcoming winter season have ended, interested students can still apply to compete in selected titles by reaching out to coach Weiss. Those who wish to watch the matches instead of participating can stream each competition on Twitch and check the Knight Life Clubs page for dates and times.
Posted on 12/6/23
Photos by Katelyn Buchalter
Knight Life 