Explosions ring in the players’ headphones as the League of Legends team faces off in their state championship match against Rock Ridge High School on April 19, winning 2-1. This is Chantilly’s second state championship since the formation of the team three years ago.
“In spring of 2022, our program began with VHSL, FCPS and CHS making a more aggressive effort to implement competitive League of Legends and Rocket League as new sports; all to be classified under the VHSL sport ‘esports,” head coach James Kotula said. “A coach was needed and as sponsor of the esports club, I was approached by Kevin Ford and Carmen Wise about coaching these competitive games.”
This year, several new students joined the team. Junior Brandon Lin was one of these students.
“I first got introduced to esports through my friends,” Lin said. “They originally told me it was just a fun club, not an esport, which is what made me want to join. Later on, I found out it was a whole competition supported by VHSL.”
Despite it being recognized as an official VHSL sport, esports is very unlike most sports. Many of the skills required for a sport, such as basketball or football, are not required in esports.
“I think esports is much easier than other sports, as it is not as physically demanding as other sports like basketball,” Lin said. “That being said, it does require equipment that is more expensive compared to other sports, such as computers and monitors, which makes the esports area challenging to grow.”
The team practices once a week in room 584 on Mondays. It’s also a designated day for schools to unofficially scrimmage each other.
“We get a schedule through a website called PlayVS, then once five players are decided, we play with the scheduled opponent,” junior Ryan Oh said.
Also, a major factor that separates esports from others is how they approach playing. The games were specifically chosen because of multiple factors, not just overall interest, such as its cost effectiveness, and requirements for the game. This is affected by PlayVS, the platform used in the playing of the games.
“The two games, Rocket League and League of Legends, were carefully selected by VHSL and our esports client PlayVS who, due to their player base, established infrastructure for competitive play and possibly due to their accessibility: both games are free and have limited hardware requirements,” Kotula said. “So while Roblox, Brawl Stars, Blockblast or Valorant or Cricket or Hockey might have the player base and interest, the resources or structure for competitive play has not been implemented in Virginia High School Esports.”
In addition to this, Kotula believes that esports requires more preparation than physical sports when it comes to determining who plays, and what their role is on the team . Preparation was a key factor in their recent state championship victory. For instance, booking at the stats of the other team can help in determining who to play and what they should do during matches.
“The most important thing when it comes to esports is communication between others. In the game that I play, where five people need to coordinate together as a team,” Lin said. “Being able to communicate with each other allows for the team to work the best. This was how we succeeded as a team at the state championship: through communicating and playing better as a team.”
