Valorant a 5 versus 5, first person shooter game. Depended on using teamwork to coordinate different abilities to attack a site and plant the spike or defend the sites and defuse the spike. The 2022-23 Hamilton Southeastern Esports team was filled with players on many teams, all with the same goals; nationals. Going to nationals showed the best teams and why luckily for the Esports Valorant team they went to nationals during the 2022-2023 season. In an regular season of the National league different competitions the Valorant team competed against were on many different skill levels. There are 64 teams in total that play.
The road to nationals isn’t easy, going through the different teams throughout the country even facing some of the high-level programs along the way. Valorant team captain Lucas Bratton says, “Preparation for the league involved various scrimmages throughout the season against many different high school and even collegiate teams, such as Ball State and IU.” Bratton explained “During the regular season, we would practice upwards of 10 hours per week, with slow weeks only having 1 or 2 scrimmages plus games. Preparing for the national tournament was similar but more intense.” Bratton added.
As the 2023-2024 season begins the team is faced with another challenge. The Valorant squad did not have enough members on their team to compete. The Hamilton Southeastern esports team is not funded throughout the school, therefor they are not funded a Esports facility. Which put them behind the other schools in the state like Carmel, Ben Davis and more who have their own Esports facilities.
“I would say the biggest con of practicing at home would be scheduling There’s definitely a lot more, such as internet issues” Batton explained. “Another large contester would be communicating. It’s a lot easier to communicate things in person rather than online.” Said Bratton.
Adding a esports facility for the teams allows new ways for the team to connect with eachother and communicate during matches. Being in one room lets the team all be on the same page in and out of a game. Being able to watch plays and talk it through with the team would be a huge advantage.
“Benefits of a facility would be similar to having a home field advantage.” Bratton said. “We would be able to see each other and interact with each other significantly better than online.” explained Bratton.
Going from the best team in the country during the 2022-2023 season and winning nationals, to now as the 2023-2024 season begins struggling to find the enough people to play on the team is a devastating disadvantage to the players on the national winning team.
“It’s frustrating. We spent countless hours last year putting in work to win the national championships, only to not have a team to defend our title” expressed Bratton. “It’s mind blowing because I know there are people that play the game, it’s one of the largest competitive games in the world, and we don’t have 6 players to make it happen?” explained Bratton.
For the team to participate in any of the league games the school is involved in they need more payers to step up, and help defend their national title, winning from a school with no facility is a hard task to do. Defending it with not enough people is even harder.
