For the E-Sports team the recently-ended season was just a warm up. Now they mean business. 

With this season of E-Sports coming to a close, both the Caravan’s Overwatch and Rocket League teams have come a long way from last season. Both squads advanced in their playoff tournaments farther than ever before and are looking to go farther next season, which begins in January 2022.
The Overwatch team, although not making the playoffs, won more games than last season.
The B team was seeded eleventh and ended up advancing through the first round but lost in the second round to the Orion Chargers. The A team swept both first-round and second-round best-of-seven matches. Although making it far, they would eventually lose to the Kankakee Kays, knocking them out of the playoffs. Last season was slightly worse than the previous season. Both A and B teams were six and two. A team only made it to the third round last season as well.
Mr. Dominic Scheuring, the organizer of the E-Sports teams, thinks what makes the A team so unique is their high level of play. “There’s no amount of coaching or practice I can give them to get them where they are at,” he says. “They’ve already done it for themselves in a way so you can only go up from there.”
The tournament was regional. There were over one-hundred-fifty teams in the Central Region who played an eight-week regular season, and the top sixty-four made it to the playoffs. While the tournament was continuing the A team was in the top sixteen of all the teams.
Rocket League is the simplest to explain in terms of understanding. The game revolves around three-on-three matches in which players drive cars to hit the soccer ball into a goal. Whoever has the most points by the end of the round wins. Overwatch, on the other hand, is a little more challenging to explain, but it is a shooter game with a very cartoony style of gameplay. Each team has six players, and there are characters they can pick that have special abilities. Some prevalent game modes are Capture the Flag, Escort, and Control. In Escort, players must move a payload from one point to the next. Meanwhile, defenders must halt the attacker’s progress until time runs out. In control, both teams must capture a point in the center and hold it for a certain amount of time.
Each Caravan team has something to improve on. Freshman Dale Twin, the captain of the C team for Rocket League, did not make the playoffs but wishes to put more practice into the game and have better team play. “Our goal for next season would be to, like I said before, play more outside of school and continue to work on those communication skills that are very vital to succeed in Rocket League,” he said.
As for the B team, Jason Cagle, a captain, and a Junior thinks the same as far as communication goes. He thinks that “more communication and rotations would be amazing.”
Rotations in Rocket League are known as offense and defense keeping players engaged in trying to score and defend goals. The A team suffered from a lack of practice and communication. Drake Alderson, a senior, and the captain of A team is looking to improve both within and outside of team play. “We definitely have to play together more and probably learn better game tactics,” he said.
Isaiah Iglesias is the team captain of the Overwatch team and shares relatively similar goals to the rest. He wants to play more and learn each of the character’s abilities in Overwatch to advance his skill when playing in any game. “It’s just a matter of not only knowing how to use them but when it’s best to use them and how to get the most out of the ability,” he said. Abilities in Overwatch are traits that can be used on the field that deal with defensive and offensive capabilities.
Mr. Scheuring is looking forward to the Overwatch team for next season, especially with having experienced players ready to get back into the action. “Isaiah Iglesias already had one season under his belt and is most fit to become the leader,” he believes. “I think our knowledge is better, our communication is certainly better, and we’re just trying to build a culture of people who play Overwatch more.”
When it comes to Rocket League, Mr. Scheuring helps with communication and gives support after a bad loss. But something Mr. Scheuring is concerned about is practice. “Some of them play a lot, others, because they played a lot over the years, don’t practice a ton during the regular season.”
Although all the Rocket League teams had their fair share of experienced players, one player, in particular, stood out the most. Freshman Aidan McGovern has put many hours into Overwatch and played in many previous tournaments outside of E-Sports. “I’ve been playing for over three years,” he says. “I think my overall play and understanding of the game really just propelled me forward. I’m a very mechanical player and I’m pretty consistent with how I use my mechanics.” McGovern is looked up to by most of his teammates as an accomplished player with an adept mindset.
Throughout the season, each team gave it their all and made a tremendous amount of progress from last season. Mr. Scheuring is staying as motivated as possible to get each team farther in the tournaments with new goals and ideas. “A Major goal would be to solidify the roster with the most skilled players we can find, and start a consistent platform and schedule for streaming games.”