The North Forsyth High School Esports club lost one match and won another by default last Thursday on Nov. 7. The NFHS Esports club meets every Thursday in the HOSA room for a Rocket League match against other schools. divide into two teams of three to take on two different schools at once. Mr.Stallings coaches both teams and Gage Thompson is the assistant coach.  Each team plays multiple matches and decides the winner based on best three out of five. This time, their opponents were North Atlanta High School and Lumpkin County High School.

The “20 fps 720p Gamers” (the humorous team name that represents just how slow and outdated the school computers are) were up against Lumpkin County. They were forced to use a sub for Guillermo Telon (one of the usual players) as he had not turned in his physical form. For these reasons, their hope of victory was not very high.

 “20 fps 720p Gamers”  lost their first match as one of their player’s computers lost internet connection right as the match began; it took the majority of the match before he was able to join again. The second match did not go so well either, ending with  a Lumpkin win 9-1. The opposing team kept coordinating attacks against Zach Brescia (our goalie) which allowed them to get several free shots. “I can’t defend the goal if I’m not in the goal,” said Zach when commenting on the game. 

Guillermo suggested that they play a more defensive strategy that would put less pressure on Zach. This defensive plan had to change as Ben Barron’s computer crashed, forcing the team to play “a game of keepaway.” Barron finally returned with Lumpkin in the lead at 10-0 with 54 seconds left in the match. Lumpkin won which declared them winner of the whole game. 

Ben said that they “struggled with [their] computers and connection problems.” Zach agreed by saying the “game would have gone a lot better if the tech we were using could keep up with us as players.” Guillermo felt like “they need to coordinate more. “Kiwi but the Animal” (the creative name of the team going against North Atlanta High School) consisted of Tyler Brescia, Judson Murray, and T.J. Book. When asked how they felt about their upcoming match, they all stated that they thought it could go either way but overall were confident in themselves. However, right as the match was about to start and they were counting down the seconds, they realized that North Atlanta had not joined, most likely because they were missing a team member.

The news was first met with with a slight celebration before turning into a disappointment.  “I was excited for our match… we won I guess,” said Tyler. T.J. was upset because he did not get a chance to show off his skill” Many players were upset at not being able to play a match, but were relieved that they received a win.” When asked for his thoughts, Gage said both the matches went “alright” and that it would have gone “better if we had better equipment. We’re doing what we can with what we got.”