Esports Team Wins First Place

By Tayeb Rahman
Staff Writer | The Pacific Times

Np3 High Esports teams made school history this fall as our Chess Esports won first place in the Pacific Conference (West Coast) and our Valorant team won first place in the Major League gold bracket.

The Valorant team consists of Ryan Le, Marcus Her, Andrew Le, Sean Saeteune, Lam Pham, and Gino Davenport. The team competed against a multitude of schools and won a plaque for Np3 after winning first place in the Gold Bracket.

Andrew Le, currently in his junior year and part of the Valorant team, said, “It was really fun competing in our NP3 Valorant team. I enjoyed collaborating with NP3 students in such a competitive bracket. We beat many schools in our region and because of that, we won the gold bracket championship award.”

The Chess esports team consists of Alex Lao and Alvin Ao. Np3’s biggest challenge in the Chess bracket was the LHS Asgardians from Lyndbrook High School. They had around nine competitors in the bracket compared to NP3’s two. LHS’s most formidable player was ritam22 with a Chess rating of nearly 2100. He went undefeated in the brackets until Lao faced him in the finals. Lao had defeated four Asgardians prior to the finals where he would face their strongest player.

Ultimately, Np3 took the win for the entire West Coast with another trophy added to the collection. It was the first time Np3 won a trophy for chess, and it was a resounding first place. The score was three to zero. Lao is now set to compete at Nationals from May 30 to June 2 where the prizes will be $750 for first, $500 for second, and $250 for third place finishers.

“The matches I played in the fall chess tournament playoffs were challenging and tense for sure and my opponents were great. There were certainly times when I struggled and made many mistakes. I am proud that I have made it to nationals and can represent NP3 and hopefully get another victory for NP3,” said Lao.

The High School Esports League starts preseason competition next week. Some of the leagues have entry fees of $45 while others are free. The games this season are Valorant, Rocket League, Halo Infinite, Minecraft(Survival Games), Brawlhala, Chess, Counter-Strike 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, Splatoon 3, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The leagues are divided into Premier(Highly competitive), Major(Casual and competitive), and Training Grounds(Low stakes for new players).

If you are interested, contact Donald Lowery as soon as possible because preseason games start Monday, Feb. 19 2/19. For more information, contact [email protected].