The Esports state championship tournament proved fruitful for City High Esports, whose all-senior League of Legends team went undefeated at the tournament. City’s Valorant team was also quite successful, being defeated just once.

“It went really well. We had no problems. [The League of Legends team] didn’t lose a single round,” Ziggy Alvarez said.

To win their games the team used multiple characters, like offense, defense, and healing elements. There are five other players that coordinate different strategies and learning different techniques to prepare to battle other Esports teams.

“It went amazingly well,” Robert Crawford, one of the Esports coaches at City, said. “Our League of Legends team was undefeated this entire season. We finished the regular season in first place with no losses and swept all four matches at state.”

The junior varsity teams also enjoyed good success, with the Mario Kart team placing first in the JV division and the Rocket League team finishing second in the JV division.

“It may not be the same games we’re playing next year,” Crawford said. “But I think we have enough talent at City High that we can keep this role.”

Many of the current Esports players are seniors, so the program is looking to recruit new students.

“I’m a senior, and so is the entire [League of Legends] team,” said Ziggy Alvarez ‘25. “So next year, it’s just about trying to get other people to come out and play, because it’s fun.”

Nicholas Tran ‘25, one of the founding members of the program, said that the program hopes to collaborate with Southeast Middle School to foster young talent.

“It’s hard to say [whether the program will continue to be successful],” Tran said. “City is still a relatively small program…but we’re trying to reach out to Southeast to get some new talent.”

Tran said that the championship went as well as it could have for the League of Legends team.

“We went undefeated through the whole tournament,” Tran said. “We did very well as a team.”