When one comes to high school, they want to fit in. They want to find their group of friends and have a place where they feel they belong. They want to have that stereotypical high school experience that we see in every Disney Channel Original movie.
And no place at Eastern can give students this desired experience quite like the ESport’s club can.
The club is young, only being two years old, yet despite the odds has grown a passionate, tight-knit community. Every Tuesday and Wednesday the group gathers to either sharpen their skills together or compete against other schools.
The vibe of the club is light-hearted, and it doesn’t feel like its primary goal is winning. Rather, the club focuses on having a good time with one another and being a spot that students can relax at after school.
Gavin Garcia, a senior at Eastern and founding member of the club, stressed how, unlike many other activities at Eastern, the team is not super competitive with one another. Rather they are all there to have fun, “Eastern is so results oriented, but this club is not just results oriented.”
Aditya Keswani, a fellow senior and founding member, added on to Garcia’s comment, “It feels like what a club should be – we are genuinely just here for enjoyment.”
In spite of the laid-back atmosphere, the club is still incredibly successful. In just its first year as an established club, the Rocket League team went all the way to win the championship. Something that many other Eastern teams have tried and failed to do for years.
Like most clubs, especially those in their infancy, the ESports team is not without its problems. The most prominent of which being its low attendance. Although the team is strong in spirit, they lack strength in numbers. The club has only a dozen or so members, and an even smaller number attend the meetings regularly.
Even more concerning is the fact that a large percentage of the team’s members are seniors – meaning next year that dozen may drop to only a handful. If the team cannot attract new members, and fast, they may be nonexistent next year.
For Garcia, the club’s potential demise is one of his “principal fears.” He is concerned that even if there is a team, many of the members will be distracted with other activities or just simply not care that much.
Keswani believes the reason for the clubs lack of attendance is because the club is not appealing to freshmen, “Freshmen join clubs for the social life. This club doesn’t have a big enough presence for freshmen to find that.”
The team’s small numbers is even more unfortunate when you look at just how much funding the club has been given. Eastern has purchased the club 12 Alienware towers, two switches, and three large televisions. Thousands of dollars worth of hardware going practically unused.
Both Keswani and Garcia believe that there is a way administration could help them stay alive next year and deep into the future – approving more games. Super Smash Brothers and Rocket League are currently the only games that are approved for the club to compete in. If the school would approve League of Legends, Overwatch, or Valorant (three of the most popular ESport games) more students would join the team.
