By most accounts, last Saturday’s eSports state finals held in Bloomington at Illinois Wesleyan College had been five years or so in the making.
Around the state, eight sectional tournaments were held on April 23, in keeping with sectional assignments in other sports.
At Salem, 13 schools from our end of the state were invited to participate: Chatham Glenwood, East St. Louis Sr., Edinburg, Galatia, Golconda (Pope County), Granite City, Mt. Olive, Roxana, host school Salem, Springfield Lanphier, Taylorville and Wood River-East Alton.
For the uninitiated (myself included), IHSA offered competitions in three arenas: Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. (single and duo) and NBA 2K.
Massac County High School’s eSports coach/sponsor Brock Frazier and his crew made the trip and were proud to report a successful outcome.
Massac County’s team entries came agonizingly close to moving on to the state competition, but recorded third-place finishes in both of the team events they entered. The Super Smash Bros. duo of WesLee Williams and Matthew Craddock missed moving on to Bloomington by a scant one game margin. In Rocket League play, the team of Matt Austin, Chris Puckett and Dylan Curtis missed moving on by the same meager margin.
Disappointing to the kids?
Yeah, but for a first-time venture, it was a pretty big deal and something to be proud of and, more importantly, to build on.
Now for the good/better news!
MCHS sophomore Keeghan Steele took first at Salem in the Super Smash Bros. singles competition. The Massac contingent made the haul to Bloomington on Saturday, April 30, for the state finals where Steele met up with Wilmette Loyola Academy’s Jordan Williams.
Williams prevailed three games to two and dropped Steele into the loser’s bracket where he matched up with Kankakee McNamara’s Sean Stoer. In Round 2 action, Steele toppled Stoer three games to zero, and in what was to be his final match, met up with Romeoville’s Shamir Castillo. Castillo flipped the script on Steele, blanking him three games to zero. The overall winner of the Super Smash Bros. title was Lake Park’s Shaan Patel.
Once again, a tip of the hat to Frazier and his eSports crew and, especially, Keeghan Steele for making it as far as he did.
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