RBHS esports teams Green (varsity) and Gold (junior varsity) prepare for district playoffs after a phenomenal varsity and developing junior varsity season with a record of 8-0 and 2-6 respectively. They will compete at Ukatsu, a youth development center focused on providing balance between gaming, social interaction and physical activity. The Bruin Gold team will play Battle High School’s (BHS) Gold team for the quarterfinal round Nov. 23 while Bruin Green received a bye week and will contend Nov. 30 for the semifinal round. If either team succeeds, they will play for the championship Dec. 7. 

As with first semester tradition, Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment is the tournament’s Esports game. “Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter game,” according to the Collider, a review site. 

Co-founder Joe Chee, an avid gamer growing up, envisions Ukatsu as “something like a Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA Boys and Girls Club type of thing, specifically for kids who play a lot of video games.” At Ukatsu, one can see Chee bouncing around talking to players, coaches and staff members, always with cheerful, purposeful eyes. 

Chee said they hold Overwatch and League of Legend tournaments for high school tournaments because “those are hands down the biggest esports in the world right now.”“When it comes to why we’re not doing things like Rainbow Six or Call of Duty, those are maybe more realistic violence that public schools don’t allow,” Chee said. “We still support those games privately.”

Senior Peter Kim, who has been on the RBHS Green team for two years, said Overwatch, while not being his all time favorite, is his preferred video game for competitive play. Kim said Overwatch is special because “usually if someone has a really good player on their team, they win, but this game requires all six people to be at a level of good teamwork.” He said he believes “anyone can beat almost anyone if you can work together well.” 

“I’ve been playing games for a really long time,” Kim said. “My brother got me into games, and I just stuck with it ever since.”Like many on the esports team, Kim is invested in games. Gentry Middle School science teacher and esports coach Kevin Leet said he enjoys spending time with the team because of how passionate and engaged the students are. The team practices online every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9:00 p.m, building teamwork and skill to dominate season play. 

Leet bragged on the two returning varsity members Kim and senior Michael Cecil. Cecil especially has a lot of experience with Overwatch and functions as the “tank” of the team, protecting his teammates. Because of Cecil’s knowledge, Leet named him the assistant coach and said Cecil predominantly runs the practices and tournament strategies.

“I give some comments, but he just has so much insight to the game that I just let him do it. When you know as much as he knows, like I don’t want to disrespect him,” Leet said. “If we put it to like football, he would be like Peyton Manning.”

The RBHS Green team remains undefeated this season, rarely dropping maps. A team must win three out of the four or five maps to win the round. The varsity team’s strength is not limited to neighboring schools, however. For the first time, the University of Missouri hosted a statewide high school Overwatch tournament this season. Nine teams competed for $1200 of scholarship money. RBHS won, and each member received $200 of the pot. 

“They were treating it like a proper sporting event, which was very cool,” Leet said.

RBHS prevails in regular season play

On Nov. 9 RBHS participated in the Round Robin season play, where Columbia Public Schools (CPS) compete against each other. RBHS Green, the first seed, played Hickman Purple, the sixth seed. In an overwhelming display of dominance, the Bruins achieved all of their objectives in near perfect progression while Hickman failed to make headway. 

The first of four maps, the Oasis map, sought for both teams to become “king of the hill” or occupy a plot of land without any of the opposing team members. “Once that point reaches 100 percent on either side, they win,” Cecil said. Sophomore Ben Loeb performed particularly well in the map when he killed three of the opponents by securing “environmental kill” by pushing them off the map. “Anywhere I can boop them off I go to,” Loeb said. “I was thinking, ‘There are about four routes they could go on, what the one rout I could go to boop them all off?”

Cecil, while usually focusing more on defense, achieved play of the game for the second map, Horizon Lunar Colony. This assault map has one team be the attackers and the others be the defenders. “If you are on the attacking side, you have to capture two control points or two objectives. The defenders’ job is obviously to stop you,” Cecil said. 

“I went on a flank route, which means I go behind them. I used my chain hook, which is [where] I throw a hook at them and pull them to me, to get all of their attention because they want to kill me right,” Cecil said. “Then I use my ultimate ability, which is basically a machine gun that knocks people back, but because we were in a room, they can’t be knocked back, so it does a lot of damage.”

“Both times I got play of the game, I got help from Peter. I got nano-boosted. If you get nano-boosted, you get powered up,” Cohen said. “Normally with Kenji you have to swing twice to kill someone with a sword. But with with nano-blade, you only have to swing once.”

Leet said while the Green team is filled with talented individual players, but what makes the Bruins stand above is their teamwork. From shouting which opposing player the team should hone in on to following a strategy, Cohen said RBHS is distinguished by their connectivity. 

“Our communication is just on another level,” Cohen said. “Of course there is a skill difference between individual players, but what really matters is communication. Knowing who to fire at, when to run away and when to go back in.”

While this is only the first year Leet has coached for the team, he hopes to do it for much longer. Leet said the team practices nearly six hours each week together, an their dedication expands beyond that, and their enthusiasm is always evident. 

“We are hoping it gets bigger. Every single one of these events the audience gets bigger a little bit,” Leet said. “If more and more teams show up to tournaments, we will get to the point where there eventually is a state championship. Because if we had that, these guys would probably win it.”

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