The HHS eSports Club has been making a comeback after the recent global pandemic. It’s coming back in full swing with a tournament and can be found in the HHS library, if you are interested in joining into their daily Smash Bros games. Mr. Sean Murphy says he’s optimistic on the outcome of the eSports club and The Clarion had to find out more about it. We interviewed the one behind it all, Mr. Murphy, about some of his goals and just what the eSports club is all about.

The Clarion: About the tournament: who’s attending? Will there be a championship title and or prize?

Mr. Murphy:The tournament is pretty informal. I want to get people interested in playing Smash Brothers Ultimate competitively, in a more organized way, beyond the games that people are already playing together at lunch. One of the most important goals of eSports is organization; students are already playing these games…it doesn’t feel like I need to introduce games to anyone or even explain how they work. eSports is really about taking those casual gaming sessions with friends and making it as organized and competitive as traditional sports that already have mainstream and institutional acceptance. So we’re getting organized with this first tournament…it’s a committed group of kids who are participating, and then I’m going to buy the winner some candy. I tried to get the kids to play for pride, but one student made a point of saying they wanted candy. So I’m getting candy. 

The Clarion: Are you looking to implement more games? If so, what games are you hoping to add?

Mr. Murphy: There are several games I’m interested in playing with the club, games that have widespread popularity, like Rocket League, League of Legends, and Overwatch. I have a lot of ideas for what to do with the club, what games we can play, what this can look like in five years. There are different phases or stages the club can take over time, and right now I’m focused on getting kids organized and interested in eSports. 

The Clarion: What is the origin of the ESports Club? How long has it been around?

Mr Murphy: The is the first year there’s been an official eSports club at Hawthorne High. In the spring of 2020, there were students who began playing Smash Brothers Ultimate in the library at lunch. There was at least one tournament before the school got shut down because of COVID. Ms. Di Geronimo was helping the students get organized then. COVID restrictions made things very challenging, so it was kind of on hold for last year. Now I’ve been working on getting students to come at lunch, after school, being organized, and getting to know everyone. There are students who were here before COVID and know what used to be available to them at Hawthorne High, but there are also two classes, the freshmen and sophomores who haven’t had a real normal school year here. I have some upperclassmen that I’m really excited to have sort of taking on the lead and showing other students how this can be rewarding and fun. 

The Clarion: Do you have any goals for the ESports Club? If so please list a few.

Mr Murphy: I would love for there to be a highly organized and competitive eSports Club that grew into a competitive gaming team that competed against other schools and was taken as seriously as any other sport in this school. That kind of thing takes time and commitment from everyone involved; I hope that the things we’re doing now will lay a foundation for that down the road. 

Clarion: Is there anything else you would like to know? Anything important you’d like to be included in the article?

Mr Murphy: eSports is just getting started as a club and I am already very optimistic about the students who are involved; they seem very committed and interested in all kinds of eSports. It’s been a tough 18 months for so many people in this school, even if all that happened to you was that you didn’t get to see your friends as much or be social with other kids, I want eSports to be the kind of place where we can try to build back the things that so many of us lost over the past 18 months.