The De Smet Jesuit Apex Legends Esports team won the State Championship at the Scholastic Esports Federation’s Winter Bash on Feb. 5.
The trio of junior Cayden Smotherson, junior Saul Rico, and freshman Beau Kleeman started off the state match losing their first three games and were in 12th place before the start of game four.
“Mr. Merrick told me when I called them that Saturday night they were concerned,” Esports director Ryan Sextro said, “everybody was playing very conservatively, they were just hiding from other teams.”
But everything changed after that as the team won both games four and five skyrocketing them to first place in the tournament, giving them the win and the state title.
“I was so excited, I was so happy for those students,” Mr. Sextro said. “They really worked their butts off all season. It was really fun to watch them because they never played with each other before.”
They started the Esports season off with 2 preseason wins and a win in the first week of the regular season.
“Right away I was like, they’re pretty cracked,” Mr. Sextro said. “It was pretty exciting.”
The team competed twice a week for five weeks and finished the regular season at the top of their group.
“They had a little trouble with consistency in the middle of the season,” Mr. Sextro said, “but overall, they played really well, especially in the later weeks.”
This is De Smet’s first state championship in Esports.
“We’re gonna put something up in the room for a plaque or something like that with their names on it,” Mr. Sextro said.” I’m really excited about that.”
