Saturday, February 8th, Western Hills (and Arlington Heights) attended the first eSports tournament under FWISD sponsorship. David Saenz, FWISD Senior Innovation Officer, and others from the FWISD downtown administration came out to support us and gather information for our future. Their plan is to roll eSports out to all 21 FWISD high schools in the next 3 years.

The WHHS Smash Bros. 5-man crew won the very first official match ever for our district, beating Anne Richards HS. Unfortunately they were bounced in the quarterfinals against Burleson Vortex, the eventual winner of the 5-man crew tourney. Christian Jackson had an amazing 8 stock run in the battle if you know what that means.

The 5-man team was made up of Christian Jackson, Ronnie Hall, Foy Ellis, Xavier Padia, Ziek McHenry, with Ajani Freeman and Jose Ariza as alternates.

In the Smash Bros. singles tourney, Ronnie Hall made it to the semifinals (Top 4) in his 32 man bracket.

The UIL will almost certainly be adding eSports in Texas within the next year or two. Over 100 colleges give scholarships to students to play on their teams. There are hundreds of career paths in eSports, from playing the games, to emcee/MC'ing the events, to the IT and AV side, to calling/announcing the matches, to communications and security. There are more careers supporting the field than players playing the games, which most people don't realize.