Woodland Public Library’s E-Sports Team Kicks Off The Season

Ellora Biggs

Recently, the Woodland Public Library has been up and running with a new eSports league for teens. For those who don’t know, eSports is a form of competitive video games as a team or individually. With the expansion of the internet and high-tech computers, eSports has really taken off. While eSports differ from physical sports like football and basketball, they share similar benefits of leadership, cooperation, and problem-solving. 

The WPL’s new eSports league has been doing great with a winning season of 3 wins and 2 losses. They are currently approaching the Spring Playoffs after one more regular game, so good luck to them! The team is headed by Vincent Ayon of PHS as captain. Multiple team members are from PHS–Daniel Chavez, Michael Vazquez, Christopher Jackson, Jovanny Villarreal, Lalo Garcia, Joseph White, and Joseph Jones. Todd Dugan and Elias Lopez of Cache Creek are also on the team. They’re coached by Frank Briceno, Sara Day, and Sara Vickers. 

The team competes in Super Smash Bros. against other highschools in the area such as from Davis, Oregon, and even Los Angeles. Individual matches are played against a team, and the last player standing moves onto the next player, and so on. To win the overall match, the team must win three individual matches. 

“It’s competitive play, it’s not just for fun” remarks Vincent. The matches can’t get pretty intense, and getting stressed or distracted presents the biggest challenge as cited by Daniel. But, the team has various strategies to deal with this and get “in the zone”. “Take a breath, step away, think of a good strategy” says Todd. Jovanny says that “getting to know the game” is the most helpful for him. 

These challenges definitely have their benefits though. Throughout their competitions, the team has learned to stay calm under pressure, be humble, and be patient. Like any competition, it takes practice and hard work to be successful. They’ve had a great start thus far. “The first game we swept,” boasts Jovanny, meaning they won the first three matches. As they continue to get through the season, they’d like to expand their membership. “We’d love to be involved with more leagues and playing additional games, like Mario Cart. It would be great to have more teams to play more matches!” hopes Assistant coach Sara Day. The eSports team has had some great accomplishments so far and we wish them luck in the playoffs!