The Logansport High School esports program is just in its second year but the program has already produced a state championship.
Logansport won the IHSEN Division AA state championship in Rocket League this year.
Logan edged Kankakee Valley 3-2 in a best-of-five series format in a Final Four contest. Logan then defeated Western 4-0 in a best-of-seven format to win the state title.
The Logansport varsity Rocket League team consists of three sophomores, Brayden Jordan, Xander Wilson and Parker Hoyo, and one freshman, Mac Collins. The team is coached by Dave Packard, a teacher at the Century Career Center and a broadcaster for WSAL for Berries football and basketball games.
Wilson said it was nice to win the first state championship in LHS esports history.
“I’m proud of myself and my team. I think we could definitely try to go in the higher division and see how we do there. But overall I’m really proud of us,” he said.
IHSEN has a total of 21 Rocket League teams, split into three divisions by enrollment. Other Division AA teams include Munster, Marion, Kankakee Valley, Mooresville and Western. Division AAA teams include Fort Wayne Snider, Jeffersonville, Penn, Ben Davis, Carmel, Portage, Noblesville and a team from Indianapolis. Division A teams include Mississinewa, Scottsburg, Northwestern, Wabash, Salem, South Dearborn and Hanover Central. Currently there is not an option for Logansport to move up divisions.
Rocket League, described as “soccer, but with rocket-powered cars,” became an officially sponsored esports game soon after its release in 2015.
Jordan said the game is in a way its own entity.
“A lot of people try to play it like soccer but it just doesn’t work,” he said.
One of the reasons is that one Rocket League player acts as a goalkeeper, midfielder and forward all within seconds of the game. Logansport competes in a 3-on-3 league.
As is in sports, teamwork and communication are key in Rocket League. The gamers wear headsets to communicate with each other.
“There’s a lot of controversy around esports now, it being a sport,” Wilson said. “I wouldn’t consider it athletic, but it definitely takes a lot for your brain and hand-eye coordination.”
Rocket League is a popular game. By 2017, the maker of the game, Psyonix, reported over 10.5 million copies had been sold.
College and professional futures are also possible in Rocket League to give the gamers something to strive for.
“We’re going to try to play in a tournament late April, early May and I was talking to these guys today about it. There might be recruiters from colleges that go to this tournament and watch us play,” Packard said. “If they see one of these guys and are really into the way they play, they could possibly get offered a scholarship. We haven’t had any scholarship people from our esports program yet because there’s only been two years. But that’s a possibility. And I think people will start respecting esports a lot more once their kids are starting to get free things for college.
“There’s big money in esports. You have to research it online but there are tournaments all the time with millions of dollars that are getting thrown around for winning these things. A lot of celebrities are getting into buying esports teams and things like that.”
Wilson is hopeful of a possible college scholarship and maybe a professional career someday.
“That’s kind of what I’m chasing for right now. I’m hopefully to get a future in this maybe,” he said.
Packard said the LHS gamers play at a high level. For instance, he’s a veteran gamer himself who for a time was a tester for EA Sports in Orlando, Florida. He has been playing Rocket League for years but said he doesn’t stack up to the high schoolers.
“I think maybe the first time we played I might have been a little bit better than they expected an adult to be, and that probably gave me a little better respect,” he said. “They’re all better than me now. I may have been able to handle a few of them last year, not well, though; I would’ve had to get lucky. But they are well past my skill level at this point.”
The LHS gamers said there are no particular roles for each gamer and that they are all close to the same level. In the 3-on-3 setup, one gamer must sit out per game.
“We’re all around the same skill level,” Collins said. “We just decide who wants to play first.”
Hoyo, Jordan and Wilson have been playing together since 2017. Collins started playing with them last year as an eighth grader.
They all plan to continue to play Rocket League together for the Logansport esports team for the rest of the time they are in high school. The high school esports season runs both semesters, so it’s possible they could win two state titles in the same school year.
They went 5-1 in official contests this first semester season, with the only loss coming against Munster in the season opener.
While the LHS gamers are good, they said comparing them to pros would be like trying to compare a high school basketball player to an NBA player.
“They’re way better, by a lot,” Collins said.
One of the advantages of esports is the players get to practice on their own time and they don’t have to have set practice times.
“Because the game’s so short, you can get in and out of it pretty quickly,” Packard said. “So if you’ve got a half hour to kill, you can get your skills up. These guys basically self-practice. Last year, we started and we were trying to have designated practices and we would all get in a room, but now I’ve realized that these guys can all play on their own. They can contact each other, play when they’re free, so that makes it easier to train. A basketball team can’t do that. They can’t at 7:30 at night be like, ‘Let’s all hoop it up.’ They kind of could, but not instantly like these guys. So it’s better for them to practice when they can around school. It helps them train up.”
Logansport offers a variety of games in esports each year, with Bryan Hole and Tucker McCord rounding out the three-man coaching staff.
Packard credited LHS principal Matt Jones for his role in starting the esports program and supporting it.
