There was only a second left on the clock as the East High athletes put one last shot on goal.
The series was tied. The match was tied. A goal would win the state championship. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
In what felt like an eternity, the ball glided towards Valor Christian’s goal and barely squeaked under the crossbar. Goal. East High wins!
As East’s three athletes, Austin Green, Jacob Malek, and William Turner, celebrated, they didn’t run to the corner flag or do a knee slide on turf. Instead, they stood up from their computers, wiped the sweat from their palms, and high fived.
Green, Malek and Turner weren’t playing soccer. They were playing Rocket League — a video game that resembles soccer, except with rocket-powered cars knocking a giant ball around in dizzying acrobatic displays.
“That's what every person dreams of, right?” said Green, who scored the winning goal on Dec. 10. “That's what every person dreams of.”
Esports are growing across Colorado
The East High team is the latest to capture a Colorado championship in esports, or competitive video gaming.
In 2019, the Colorado High School Activities Association, the state authority for high school athletics, voted to approve esports as an official statewide recreational activity. Commissioners had an ambitious goal: An esports team in half of Colorado’s high schools.
Since then, the sport has grown in popularity. In Denver, 18 public high schools have esports teams, in addition to a handful of middle elementary schools.
School officials and coaches see esports as a way to make schools more inclusive. Gone are the days where jocks shove nerds into school lockers for playing Dungeons and Dragons — East High esports players say the popularity of video games has leveled the playing field.
“I've been walking around [getting] applause in class. We'll be in pep rallies,” Green, a senior, said. “The jock on the football team plays video games, the basketball player, everybody plays video games. And so I'm super glad that there's a place that is inclusive for people in the school that can come.”
Terita Walker, East’s principal, thinks the popularity of esports shows school environments are becoming more accepting and that the concept of “outcasts” isn’t as common.
“This may sound utopic, but I think at East, everybody’s cool,” she said.
What’s next for the East High esports team?
East High esports coach Adam Paull said the team is now focused on qualifying for nationals, which would require winning an in-person tournament in the spring.
After that, with Green and Malek graduating this spring, East is looking to Turner, a first-year student, to lead the Rocket League team.
Aside from Rocket League, CHSAA hosts official tournaments for the games League of Legends, Splatoon, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8. East High teams also participate in other unrecognized esports, like the “hero shooters” Valorant and Overwatch, and even online chess.
Paull, who helped get the East High esports team started by bringing his own consoles to school, expects team membership to blow up now that they’ve won a state championship.
“Esports is alive and thriving and it's a brand new sport that I feel like a lot of people in the district even have a hard time acknowledging,” he said. “It's a real thing now, I think it's kind of hard to say no to.”
