Colleyville Heritage defeats Allen to capture 2nd straight Esports state championship
After winning the inaugural state championship in December, the Esports team at Colleyville Heritage made it a clean sweep during the 2019-20 school year with a second state title on Thursday.
The Panthers made it back-to-back titles in the League of Legends with a 2-1 win over Allen. Garland Naaman Forest won the Rocket League championship.
“Very proud of a group of kids that started a program from scratch,” Heritage principal Lance Groppel said. “Back-to-back state champs is a huge testament to their hard work.”
League of Legends is a battle arena video game while Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game. Heritage won in League of Legends during the fall championships while Grapevine won Rocket League.
A replay of the championship match can be watched here.
Esports is a club sport and yet to be UIL sanctioned, but state officials continue to discuss it, including at its bi-annual Legislative Council meeting in October. The number of schools in Texas that play continues to grow with a majority in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas.
Both Heritage and Grapevine competed throughout the year against other Texas high school Esports teams via PlayVS, the official Esports partner of the National Federation of State High School Associations.
“The ability to keep playing and the connection among the kids are so important,” said Kyle Berger, Chief Technology Officer for GCISD. “It’s been nice to see the school rally around it after everything was lost due to COVID.”
Due to the novel coronavirus, Heritage players rotated game play from home and were able to finish out the season, which runs over eight weeks, including playoffs. Grapevine, however, couldn’t finish as some students had difficulties with equipment and internet connection.
The teams usually play their matches from school.
The Esports program at Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District was established in 2018 with over 75 students competing in the first year. Over 160 students, including 135 players, were in the program this year.
In its first year alone, the GCISD program discovered 70 percent of its students did not participate in any other campus activity. The program helps prepare students for a growing industry as well as focusing on skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.
“It’s great to bring home another title,” Berger said. “It says a lot about where we’re going with esports and how we continue to build this foundation. It’s exciting to see the rapid growth of it.”
The sport continues to grow as a million dollar profession. Students can also receive college scholarships, including Ryan Wooley at Texas Tech. He graduated from Heritage in 2019.
Arlington is also home to Esports Stadium, which is adjacent to Globe Life Park.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 5:15 PM.
