ESPORTS: AN EVOLVING TEAM

Members Speak On Teams Progress And Road To Nationals

After the world faced the harsh realities of the pandemic, socializing with others was no longer normal. Everyone had to find ways to save connections with families and friends and had to adapt to the constant loneliness the pandemic created. Many people found a sense of normalcy online, and some even found ways to build connections in the world of online gaming. Due to the lack of sports events occurring around the world, some found entertainment in online gaming competitions. According to Insider Intelligence, esports viewers increased by 11.5 percent from 2021 to 2022 as competitions began to rise in popularity around the world. With no signs of slowing down, the gaming industry continues to expand to provide a way for others to connect online.

World of Sports Complex, in the national Esports tournament. Having received D3 offers from various schools throughout the country, Beason is confident in himself, and his teammates will perform to the best of their abilities this summer and win the National tournament.

Junior Calvin Hoang, coach of the JV team, shared about why the team is more than just playing video games. “Other than playing games I think it provides kids with an ability to work in a team setting,”Hoang said. “It requires collaborstion, a skill much needed for real life.” With a promising future ahead for the club, the Esports team will bring home national success for years to come.

In fall 2021, Keaton Squires created the first competitive gaming club here at HSE called Esports. Squires saw the need for the club as other programs around the country continued to compete in worldwide competitions. The club is like any other sports team, with junior varsity and varsity positions for the players. The varsity players compete in Overwatch and Valorant, and the junior varsity team plays Super Smash Brothers, Rocket League and League of Legends. The varsity Overwatch players performed well enough to make their way to Florida for Nationals in the spring of 2022.

Senior Vincent Ostrowski, a member of the Overwatch team who joined for the spring season, shares his experience integrating with the team. “It’s interesting watching our team succeed,” Ostrowski said. “[I feel] it is just chance that HSE had enough people who all played the same game and are good at it.”

Story by Parker Farrand and Madelynn Page. Photo contributed.

One of their senior players, Zachary Beason, has been with the Esports club for two seasons now and plays for the Overwatch team. Beason is excited for the future of the teams and commented on a drastic improvement he has seen in the past year.“Compared to last year, our Esports team, especially the Overwatch team, was severely underdeveloped. We didn’t even have a team for both semesters,” Beason said. “This year, we have found some great players and we have improved as a team.”

After having won the Atlantic side of the U.S. tournament for Overwatch last semester, Beason and his teammates will be going to Florida in June to play at the Entertaining and Sports Programming Network Wide

The Argument Of Robot Refrees Being Allowed In Sporting Events

The debate surrounding artificial intelligence is not a new one, but the conversation has had a massive resurgence with recent technology being available and implemented into daily lives. A huge form of AI is a computer analysis program used to referee during sporting events. It is most commonly used in soccer to determine penalties. While it does make the process of calling certain illegal moves easier, it eliminates the aspect of human judgement.

For example, there is a rule in soccer that prevents a player from being “offside”. The offside rule is exceptionally complicated and has been changed many times, but as of 2019, the rule is that a player is considered offside if any part of their body is closer to the opponent’s goal than the ball and their second to last opponent. The rule was put in place to prevent players from gaining an unfair advantage by just standing by the goal and waiting for the ball. Sound confusing? That is exactly the reason they implemented AI. What they learned after implementation was that human judgement was more important than they previously expected.

The system, called Video Assistant Referee, was intended to cut out human error by catching obvious mistakes. The issue that is presented is that “obvious mistakes” is a vague phrase - up to human interpretation to determine what makes a mistake “obvious”. The argument now presents itself: should VAR be making the call or merely be a consideration to a referee?

Sports fans are very opinionated on this matter, and many have spoken about what effect VAR has on the game. Senior Kameron Akers is a huge fan of sports, having watched hundreds of hours of games across multiple sports.

“I think [AI] will make the viewing experience more pleasurable,” Akers said. “It will allow for more accurate calls throughout the duration of the game, along with making the process more efficient.”

Many do believe this to be true. Having a robot make the calls could create less opportunity for passionate fans to be angry because they believe that the referee has made an error. VAR is designed specifically to prevent mistakes, therefore preventing an abundance of rage directed at referees who are simply doing their job.

So, does AI make the game better? Does using technology to determine the outcome of the game take away the humanity of it? The big debate all comes down to personal opinion. Some enjoy the debatable aspects of the game, arguing over calls and debating the outcome of the game. Som0e people enjoy the preciseness and lack of errors at AI brings to the game. The answer lies with the individuals watching and playing the game, leaving it up to personal taste. Story by

Hannah Vanlandingham.