An Akins student with the username Uhexplain drives the ball into the goal… literally. He makes a nose dive to make the save and does an aerial route to center the ball.
This isn’t any ordinary competition. It’s soccer with cars. It’s competitive video gaming. It’s Rocket League.
Akins’ Beak Squad Esports Team won first place in the first-ever AISD Rocket League tournament on May 11. This was also the first esports tournament that Austin ISD has ever promoted featuring competitors from four different schools. The team consisted of Renzo “BeakSquad2” Montgomery, Emilio “BeakSquad5” Alvarado, Ryan “BeakSquad4” Mata, Antonio “NotAntonio29” Cerda, and Zaid “Uhexplain” Al-Saedi.
As the first AISD esports tournament, there were issues and challenges causing difficulty for participants.
“It was the first tournament of its type for the district esports league, so there were some logistical growing pains with the tournament setup,” secondary esports coach Kyle Mueting said. “Making sure there was clear communication both from the organizers to us individual teams, as well as the teams with each other.”
Akins also experienced challenges with getting players to attend the tournament because it was held on a Saturday morning.
“The main thing is people showing up, and then it would be on a weekend,” primary coach Carlos Lopez said. “Just synching up everyone being available including other schools too, because we were supposed to do it three weeks ago, but the biggest challenge has just been scheduling and making sure people show up.”
Going into the first match, many players from Akins were nervous about the competition.
“To be honest, once the first match started, I thought I was going to be in over my head,” Mata said. “But then once we won a few times, I was like ‘OK.’ So I would say we were on the same level as the schools we first played against.”
After winning the first match 4-0 against LBJ High School, the Beak Squad spent time preparing for the finals match.
“While the other teams were playing, there was a round where we did not have a match, so we spent most of that time both staying warmed up and watching our competitors’ gameplay, and based on that we were able to form some strategies that helped us in our finals match,” Mueting said. “They were watching the tendencies of their main players, seeing who to watch out for, and then assigning each other roles.”
Within the match, the players employed several different strategies, and team communication is what held it all together, players said.
“It’s so easy to know where a certain player is going to go, or where a certain player is going to hit, and where the ball’s going to bounce from, or where the ball’s going to go,” Al-Saedi said. “Once you notice these repetitions, it’s a matter of just collaborating as a team.”
Esports makes sense as a popular activity in high school.
“I think that it’s a natural progression,” Mueting said. “I think that you see a lot of students, whether they’re in our esports club or not, spending a lot of their hobby time gaming, and I think that esports is something that, in a general media scape, there’s a hunger for them that isn’t currently being met, especially at the high school level.”
Coaches and students both agree that they would like to see events like this grow across the district.
“I think that from word of mouth and from organizing, this event will only grow going forward,” Mueting said. “Seeing the excitement of the players and the enthusiasm from the coaches will be something that helps, but also if other people enjoyed watching it, them contributing their feedback to the district and organizers will make it more likely that these types of events can happen in the future.”
“I feel like there should be more schools,” Mata said. “I would recommend that more district schools get involved.”
For more information on the esports club, visit room 176 or speak with Mr. Lopez or Mr. Mueting about joining.
