FEATURE STORY By Taylor Hood
Rise of the gamer Sports in our schools may have been interrupted by the pandemic – to say the least – but that doesn’t mean the competitive fire went out of the athletes. They simply had to get creative. One major example of that creativity is the rise of esports. Taos area esports teams took off this year. For the uninitiated, esports is simply (often team-based) competitive video gaming. At least two local schools saw their esports teams hit the virtual field this
season: Taos High School and Taos Academy Charter School. And Taos Academy even found success, placing high in the state tournaments under the leadership of Coach Cal van Willigen. “The bright spot of this season would have to be winning the first match of our quarterfinal matchup,” recalled van Willigen. “One of our rookie players, Marcus Froeschle, was able to pull off an amazing ‘Penta Kill’, the equivalent of a Grand Slam, to clinch the first game of our Bo3. We went on to win the Bo3 and we competed in the semifinals where we were unfortunately eliminated by the very tough, Early College Academy esports program.”
In the end, Taos Academy Charter School placed third in their division. “As the 2020-21 school year started we enrolled for the 2020 Fall Season,” said van Willigen. “We were able to compete from home despite being a 100-percent virtual campus. This most recent 2021 Spring Season has been our most successful by far! We are competing against other NM schools in our classification (A-3A). Still competing virtually, our students were able to finish in the three spot for both League of Legends and Rocket League during the regular season.” Heading into next year, van Willigen said he expects more team members and to win it all.
A year of remote learning has seen a rise in esports, or competitive gaming. COURTESY PHOTO
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