Sue Sitter/PCT Members of Rugby High School’s new e-sports team pose with their general manager, Johnny Skipper.From left are Kenyon Lonechild, Chase Schneibel, Bryce Jacobs, and Skipper.
<!–
Three Rugby High School students wrapped up their first-ever season of a new sports program with a trip to a state tournament held at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks on April 2.
After a tiebreaker championship game against Ft. Yates High School on April 6, Rugby took the state title.
Chase Schneibel, Bryce Jacobs, and Kenyon Lonechild represented Rugby as they competed in electronic and board games at the Grand Forks tournament.
Jacobs, who competed in chess games, took home second place after reaching the final round, where he played against a student from Park Rapids, Minn.
Johnny Skipper, a paraprofessional at Rugby High, served as the team’s general manager. Schneibel and Lonechild played with coaching from professional game players supplied by Fenworks, the Grand Forks company that launched the high school e-sports program.
Skipper said he was happy Rugby players won the state tournament in their first year of play.
Skipper and Schneibel, a Rugby High student who captains the team, said they had heard Fenworks hoped to branch out to include high schools in Montana for its program. Skipper added the e-sports program also hoped to join the North Dakota High School Activities Association.
“Just the chance to go to state is pretty cool in itself, but hanging out with all those online friends I’ve met is great,” Schneibel said.
“I’m the captain of the Apex team that went down there,” Schneibel said. “The Apex Legends game that we play is Battle Royale.”
Skipper said the game is marketed to the public.
“It’s a competitive online game,” he said.
Jacobs explained, “All the games are video games except for chess, which is in-person.”
The Rugby Panthers also had a team competing in Fenworks’ Rocket League. That team did not go to the state tournament.
Lonechild described the Apex Legends game as “an online multi-player game that you can do on Xbox, PC, Play Station, and different types of platforms.”
Schneibel nodded, saying, “Apex Legends Battle Royale is a game where 20 squads of three drop a big map and we look for guns and the last squad left wins.”
“It’s a fictional setting on a planet where the last squad standing wins,” Skipper said, noting unlike other games depicting historical events such as World War II, “There are no references to real world events or history or anything like that,”
Schneibel said the Rugby team plays as the Panthers overall, but in the Apex Legends game, the players use a team name denoting their status as high-level players.
“We’re the Apex Predators,” Schneibel said of himself and Lonechild. “In our regular season, we went 8 and 0 and didn’t lose a match.”
Skipper said the Rugby team won the state title with a score of 13-10.
Schneibel added his team hadn’t been able to finish its online tournament in Grand Forks, so they played for the first-place title against Ft. Yates High School on April 6.
Skipper said the team practiced and prepared for tournaments in the same way other sports teams prepare for big games – they watch how they did in previous games recorded online and study new strategies they can use to defeat their opponents and score more points.
Skipper said as general manager for the team, he makes the recorded games available on a software platform called Twitch.
“I make sure that the players made it to their practices and we got our games played on time and communicated with other teams and their coaches and Fenworks,” Skipper added.
“They provided lessons. They provided video lessons, in-person training, and it was over the internet, but it was with a coach one-on-one if you wanted,” Skipper said of Fenworks.
The players said Rugby and Ft. Yates coordinated game play schedules, but unlike many video games, they wouldn’t see the other teams’ characters online.
Schneibel said although many online games allow players to see their opponents, the Apex Legends game’s server didn’t have that capability.
“The only way we would try to play with each other at state would be to have our own private server, which they couldn’t get,” Skipper said.
“You have to be sponsored by EA (Electronic Arts) Games,” Lonechild said.
Skipper said EA Games sponsors some events in the U.S. and allows players to use a private server, enabling the teams “to jump in together and compete against each other directly.”
“But whenever tournaments such as ours aren’t able to get sponsored by Electronic Arts, what they’ll do instead is have teams jump into public games and compete for the most points,” he added. “Each team is playing in parallel, and not against each other.”
“So, they’re playing against random opponents online,” he said. “Whoever gets the most downs and placement determines whether (players advance in the tournaments). After a certain number of rounds, you count up all your points, which determines your total score and we tied for first with our opponent, Ft. Yates (in Grand Forks).”
Skipper said the April 6 game served as a tiebreaker, with each team playing online at their own schools.
“For a long time, that’s how all Apex Legends games were run and then, eventually, Electronic Arts started doing their sponsorships, but you have to get their attention,” he noted.
“I don’t think EA’s interested in our programs this year, but hopefully, they’ll be able to get something done next year,” he said. “I know that it’s more interesting if they all jump into the same game together and compete directly.”
Schneibel said he plays “all sorts of games” in his spare time.
“I play all the games that Fenworks (uses); I play story mode games and all sorts of online titles,” he said.
Jacobs said, “I don’t really have any games that they listed because I don’t have a gaming console so I can play them. I mainly play board games, so that’s why I’m in chess.”
Lonechild said he played “mainly just Apex and Minecraft, but really I just play Apex.”
“For next year, I’m looking at fundraising opportunities because we would really like to be able to have consoles or devices so students who don’t have access to them at home would be able to participate,” Skipper said. “So, we could set up a small lab in the school for students to be able to join and play, even if they themselves don’t have a console.”
Skipper added, “I run an elementary group, too. It’s separate from these guys; we don’t compete, but every week, we meet up in the library and talk gaming, do gaming activities and talk about safe internet habits and opportunities for e-sports and future opportunities in areas such as game design or streaming or doing e-sports.”
“You can get scholarships for (video games) now,” he said. “I know both Dickinson State University and UND both have teams and scholarships they offer to gamers who might not otherwise have these opportunities, so it’s really a growing thing and we’re trying to best accommodate as many people as we can and really grow it in the community.”
