Local high schools students continue to shine in competitive video gaming.
Esports has been gaining popularity over the years, and this can be seen is evident in the passion and talent of Macleans College and Botany Down Secondary College (BDSC) students.
As previously reported by the Times, Macleans esports programme teams reached all four national finals at the National High School Esports tournament.
Macleans Rocket League Premiere 1 team won one national title and then made the finals in the Oceanic tournament, representing secondary schools in NZ.
The team took on Caringbah High School (NSW) on Sunday and lost 0-4.
“We’re very proud of them,” Andrew Cardy, teacher in charge of the esports programme at Macleans says.
Botany’s three esports teams competed in two game titles (Valorant and League of Legends) in the META NZ High School Esports league and achieved creditable results.
The Valorant team finished 6th in the Auckland region.
The division 2 League of Legends team finished 3rd in NZ.
“The players are mostly Year 10 and Year 11 students who will no doubt improve their skills over time and come back stronger next season,” Tony Wang, a teacher at BDSC, says.
The open division League of Legends team finished 3rd in the Auckland region after losing to a very strong Macleans College team in the semi-finals.
BDSC then entered the NZ national play-offs and reached the grand final.
They were crowned Champions of NZ after a close 3-2 series against Macleans and went on to represent NZ in the Trans-Tasman competition.
Once again, the team reached the grand final but went down 3-2 to Kingsgrove North High School.
“The students showed great grit and determination despite being down 2-0,” Wang says. “I am extremely proud of their achievement.”
He says the teams showed a lot of sportsmanship and improvement throughout the journey.
“It’s the gaming industry is growing,” he says. “A lot of the parents and kids don’t understand how big it is, and how there are so many opportunities. You don’t need to even play games to work in a gaming company. With the pandemic and everything going on, gaming is one of the only things that is booming.”
