HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) – Students from Hancock High School can now practice e-sports on Mondays and Fridays.
Assistant Coach Nicholas Illescas said the team has been crushing their competition lately, too.
Lately, the teams have been playing Rocket League, which is a game where virtual cars play soccer.
“In our league, we play five games,” said Illescas. “Whoever wins the most out of those five games gets the whole series win.”
Hancock E-Sports Coach John Holladay said a partnership with Finlandia allows Hancock students to use the Finlandia E-Sports Training Center. Here, they are coached by gaming experts like Holladay and Illescas.
“We really train them to get the fundamentals of games down,” said Holladay. “[They] build the muscle memory that comes with it, and we’re really focused on teamwork because that’s the biggest thing that comes with e-sports.”
The team accepts hardcore gamers, as well as newcomers. The point is just for students to have fun doing something together that they all enjoy.
“It’s just nice that it’s a fresh start you can get into,” said Holladay. “There’s no travel cost, so you’re able to just play it in your home field all the time basically.”
In a pandemic, e-sports are a solid way to do something safe and exciting with people.
“I see e-sports being probably almost as big as the traditional sports,” said Illescas.
Only being school recognized in the area for about a month now, Holladay said he’s glad to be part of this new way to share his passion with others.
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