MONROE — While Monroe High School students weren’t able to play sports in the fall, the esports team is about to kick off its second season.
“We think that esports is a great way to have something to cheer about this fall, especially since a lot of other competitions for other sports and activities aren’t happening,” said Matt Bordner, one of Monroe’s four esports coaches.
The Cheesemakers esports program is in its second year as a competitive, school-sponsored program and will compete in Division 2 of the Wisconsin High School Esports Association (WIHSEA). The team will be set up into two competitive squads, a Tuesday group that will play Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, and a Wednesday lineup competing in Overwatch. Junior varsity teams will play Thursday afternoons.
“Right now we are rotating through different lineups in both games, but by the end of the season we will put forth our best lineups,” Bordner said. “For overwatch, coach Alex Lentz is looking at individual stats after matches and also taking into consideration communication and teamwork skills. Smash is pretty easy to figure out our best lineup, as coach Ryan Strunz has a system in place for players to challenge each other for lineup spots and play head-to-head.”
In the program’s first season a year ago, it competed in SMITE, a third-person multiple online battle arena game and had 12 kids on the roster — nine boys and three girls. This year, the roster stands at 19 total players.
“Our excitement level is very high. Word is out that esports is here to stay at MHS, and so now it’s all about building a strong core of students and getting that positive team culture established,” Bordner said. “We have some strong upperclassmen leadership that we are excited to lean on.”
Elijah Bansley and Ben Moon have served as captains, and Hunter Suthers has been a leader for the Smash Brothers team, Bordner said.
“We learned a lot from last year with it being our first time trying out esports,” Bordner said. “We are very focused on growth, and specifically looking at how to improve after every match. I think our communication is already better this year with Overwatch compared to SMITE last year, which is a huge plus. We have some returning players that understand our expectations and new players picking it up quickly.”
Bordner, also the coach of the boys and girls tennis teams, said the overall environment of the team is focusing on staying positive and having fun, while also trying to build chemistry.
With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the dynamic of both face-to-face and virtual instruction for students, the esports team has an advantage of being able to meet virtually, though, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some difficulties.
“It’s challenging coaching virtual, as we have to rely on looking at live streams of the gameplay. Only some of our players are able to live stream due to a variety of reasons, but it is helpful having some live streams to watch and judge things off of,” Bordner said.
The team communicates using the Discord app, a popular communication tool for gamers across the world. Division 2 is broken into two conferences in Smash Brothers, Link and Captain Falcon. Monroe is grouped with Edgewood, Fox Valley, Fort Atkinson, Big Foot and Reedsburg in the Link Conference. Two Rivers, Merrill, Port Washington, Jefferson, Seymour and New Richmond are in the Captain Falcon Conference.
In Overwatch, Monroe is paired with Big Foot, Edgewood, Merrill, Whitnall and Wisconsin Lutheran in the Hanamura Conference. East Troy, Fox Valley, McFarland, Port Washington, Reedsburg and Two Rivers are in the Eichenwalde Conference.
Monroe was to face two different teams in preseason Super Smash Brothers matchups, but both schools had to forfeit. The Overwatch squad was able to play both of its preseason matches, losing the first to Port Washington 4-0 and then falling in a nail-biter to Fox Valley Lutheran 3-2.
On Nov. 4, the Monroe Overwatch team played its first regular season matchup against Fox Valley and was swept in four games. The Super Smash Brothers regular season opened Nov. 3 with Monroe defeating Big Foot, 3-2.
“Coach Lentz and Coach Strunz have done a great job of setting expectations for both teams and it’s also fun to see other non-members of our esports teams cheer on and support our athletes. The staff at MHS has also been very supportive and so the kids have really enjoyed that too,” Bordner said. Juda is competing in the Division 2 junior varsity season for both games, while Shullsburg is competing in varsity and junior varsity in both games.
OVERWATCH
Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter game, available to play online on Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch and released in 2016. Players on a team work together to defend locations to complete scenarios against another team, which could include defending a control point or escorting a payload across the map. There are over 30 roster characters, also known as “heroes,” available for each match, with teams ranging from 2-6 players, with the WISHEA using a 6-player format.
WISHEA rules state all games will be bestof-5 matches, with four games being played no matter what. Map orders will be Control, Hybrid (Assault/Escort), Escort, Assault, and a fifth game, if needed, would be a second Control map. The losing team of each game gets to pick the next map, while the winning team chooses to be on offense or defense first.
Win-loss standings are based on each games played. Draws are scored as 0-0. If both teams are tied after five games, which means a draw occurred and the other games split, additional maps will be played until the tie is broken. Each team will have two damage heroes, two tanks and two supports. Individual players can change roles between maps, but not during a map.
SUPER SMASH BROTHERS ULTIMATE
The 2018 crossover fighting game is available only on Nintendo Switch and is the fifth installment of a series that dates back to a 1999 release available on Nintendo 64. In 2019, the newest edition won the award for Best Fighting Game at the Game Awards 2019, an event viewed by 45 million people.
Players can choose one of 74 characters from the Nintendo universe, including Mario, Pac-Man, Dr. Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Zelda, and Mega Man. WISHEA rules state that five players from each school will compete in a best-of-5-sets match, with a best-of-3 structure for each set. The winning player of each game will announce their character selection for the next game before the stage is decided. The winning player also can ban two stages, while the losing player picks the playing stage, followed by their own character.
There are five legal stages for use: Starter Stages, Battlefield, Final Destination, Pokemon Stadium 2, Town & City, and Smashville. Each match will last 3 minutes, 7 seconds.
