Westside varsity Esports won their first state title on Friday, Nov 19 at Concordia University. Westside took the state title in all three Esports games, including Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Rocket League. 

Team Dominus won the Rocket League state championship. The team was led by Daniel Nguyen. The Westside junior talked about the key to winning the state championship.

“We stepped it up a lot, we had people making big plays to change momentum throughout the championship game,”

Westside head coach Chase Tonkinson talked about the team’s performance throughout the state tournament.

“They were really good in the state tournament, and we played against Lincoln East in the finals who was undefeated going into the finals, and our team performed really well against them,” Tonkinson said.

The Overwatch team’s state tournament was filled with close matches, ultimately Westside pulled through and won the championship. Sophomore Lucas Fehr talked about why the Warriors were so successful in the tournament. 

“We had very little to no mistakes, we also had great communication, and everyone was able to do their part,” Fehr said.

Hearthstone, as compared to the other games, is an individual game. Westside players took first and second place at the state tournament. Junior James Gurung qualified for national league finals. 

Tonkinson has high hopes for next season and believes the Warriors can repeat as state champion. 

“Just getting the same kids back, most of them were underclassmen,” Tonkinson said. “We also want to work with them. We also hope to get some new individuals to see if we can improve our team.”

The Westside Esports team performed very well, across all of their respective state tournament brackets. After a bid in the national tournament, the team ended the fall season ranked No. 16 in the nation. The program looks forward to winning even more state championships. New games will be played next semester, such as Valorant, Super Smash Bros, and another game yet to be decided.