Senior Allison Burnett has competed on the Westside Esports team for all of her high school career, and has been able to compete for a professional team outside of playing on the team at Westside.
Burnett found an interest in video games very early on in life because she grew up in an environment with lots of games.
“I grew up in a video game environment,” Burnett said. My dad’s been playing Pac Man Pong, So it’s always been encouraging for me.”
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit Burnett went from a much more casual player to having more time on her hands to play for longer, which made her more competitive.
“I was always more of a casual player than a hugely competitive person until COVID,” Burnett said. “It happened during my freshman year and it was kind of like, okay, I have so much time at home.”
From having screen time limits to free limits on their PC’s Burnett fell in love with the game Overwatch which opened the door to many future opportunities for Burnett.
“We used to have limits and how long we spent on PCs but after COVID Those limits were gone. So I played Overwatch so much,” Burnett said.
As Burnett got more and more experience she began her season at Westside playing on the Overwatch team.
“I then realized there’s opportunities to bring this to sports to have a team like a community and even outside of that just to play with people who care about getting better and about the game,” Burnett said. “I got really really interested in that and I’ve been super involved in the program ever since.”
The start of the program began around the same time the COVID-19 pandemic started, when Dr. Mike Lucas wanted to have students participate in activities during quarantine. That is when Chase Tonkinson decided to step in and lead the new eSports program.
“So the superintendent during COVID They wanted to do something like another activity for kids to participate in,” Tonkinson said. “Maybe they could do it virtually, you know, maybe do it from home, and they came up with the idea of, you know, eSports. There were a lot of schools adding eSports around the state.”
After Burnett joined the team, Burnett was able to join a national team and an all women’s team, because of all of her experience playing Overwatch.
“I’ve been involved in eSports since my freshman year. I briefly was a professional player for the team called NYXL Academy, which is a high level pro play,” Burnett said. “I played on a female only team for about two months. The team did dissolve as a result of inconsistencies and kind of unsure of the future of the league, but it was a good experience.”
Burnett has been a source of leadership on the team. From knowing the sport and being a leader she was a prime candidate for being captain on the team.
“I like a sense of leadership with eSports and extensive experience. And I’ve tried to bring that leadership into a program,” she said. “ I personally am in charge of the Overwatch branch Captain. We are just really committed to maintaining the highest level of play that we can considering we have a lot of talented players.
Tonkinson is happy to have such an experienced gamer as well as a great leader on the eSports team. With so much knowledge and leadership skills Brunett is key gamer on the team.
“So Alison Burnett is obviously a big name around here, I like the professional experience of playing Overwatch,” Tonkinson said. “She’s been our captain for three years in a row now for Overwatch. So she’s always been a great asset and a great leader for the team.”
As her she entered Burnett does not plan on taking a scholarship to go play eSports on the collegiate level.
“I am intending to play in college but I’m not going to college specifically for esports,” Burnett. said. “I’m a little undecided because my primary focus is going to be academics, but I would love to continue having fun with the game and play on a team in college. That sense of community there.”
