The Milton Esports club kicked off its season on Jan. 14 with both the freshman and varsity teams winning 3-0 in an online Rocket League match against West Covina High School.
Milton Area High School started its own Esports club this year with Chemistry Teacher Mr. Jonathan Bixler as the teacher sponsor and coach.
According to Mr. Bixler, there was some interest years ago in starting an Esports club at Milton; however, nothing was ever done.
“But then this year. . . the YMCA told us they wanted to have some people use their Esports room, so we wanted to start a club up to use that,” he explained.
Which games the club can compete in depends on what is offered by the Pennsylvania Scholastic Esports League (PSEL) and student interest, according to Mr. Bixler. “Right now, you can play Rocket League, League of Legends and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” he said.
“There are other games that we can play if there’s interest. Those are Valorant and Overwatch, but they [PSEL] don’t have leagues for those right now,” Mr. Bixler added.
Milton can also play matches through “PlayVS,” an organization that allows schools across the nation to play against each other in many games that are not offered by the PSEL such as Fortnite Battle Royale and Minecraft.
The Esports club meets every Thursday during Pride time. Currently, 25 students are signed up as members.
Junior Elias Franciscus is a member of the Esports club. He plans to compete in a Fortnite Duos team with Sophomore Caiden Beaver when competition for Fortnite begins.
Elias said that he’s been enjoying participating in the Esports club. “It’s been great. Very welcoming. You just get to play video games,” he added.
The club’s first large-scale event will be a Rocket League tournament in March, which will be an in-person tournament played over LAN (Local Area Network). This means that all students competing will be in the same room playing over a local connection at the CSIU building in Montandon.
Milton will be competing against other schools in the region during this tournament, such as Shikellamy, Danville, Berwick, Midd-West and Shamokin.
“All the other [tournaments] are online,” Mr. Bixler added. This means that they will be played over wi-fi, so having a powerful and stable internet connection is important.
The prizes for tournaments are “satisfaction and gratitude,” according to Mr. Bixler. “There is a trophy at the end if we win states, which we are trying to qualify for,” he added.
When asked about his long-term goals for the club, Mr. Bixler said that he wants “to participate in a couple of different leagues for multiple games” within the next two years.
“Starting it up is the hard part . . . [and] getting enough interest and maintaining that interest in those games,” Mr. Bixler added.
