The fall eSports season has begun and is off to a strong start! eSports is defined as the competition between two teams inside of a video game. In Holy Family’s case, the school is competing against various other high schools across the central region of the United States. 

The important thing to understand about Holy Family’s eSports program is that it is actually a group of four different teams. Teams for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Overwatch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Rocket League all compete on behalf of HF. All of these teams compete against other high schools inside of their respective games online.

Holy Family currently competes through an organization called PlayVS. Any information about PlayVS or any of the pertinent video games can be found at PlayVS.com. 

In Super Smash Bros Ultimate, “Teams of 3 players will go head-to-head in a 1v1 format and try to knock each other out of a stage” (PlayVS). This game features video game icons such as Mario, Pikachu, and Minecraft Steve. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe features two teams of four players competing against each in a series of kart races. Rocket League is essentially soccer played by cars, in which two teams of three players each compete to rack up more goals on the other team. Finally, Overwatch is a popular competitive shooter game played by two teams of five players. Holy Family has one team for each of these games.

The league is currently in the preseason phase, during which equipment is tested and teams are configured. All of the school’s teams have already snagged a few preseason and scrimmage victories. The teams have great things on the horizon. They practice and compete together on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after school in the former B-Wing computer lab. 

If you are interested in watching live competitions, matches will be streamed on the eSports twitch channel (twitch.tv/hfchsesports). To see more updates on the eSports program, follow @hfchsesports on Twitter or Instagram. Potential eSports participants should speak to Mr. Kannel.