Sam Enlund
Social Media/Graphic Editor
Photo provided by Ken Winingham
Junior Jack Bub is Webster Groves High School’s first Esports State Champion. Bub competed on Monday, Dec. 6, and was named Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation Class Two Super Smash Brothers Ultimate State Champion.
Bub has been a part of the Esports team at Webster for three years and won state in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a Nintendo fighting game where players battle each other and attempt to be the last one standing.
Nintendo describes the game by saying on its website, “Unlike more traditional fighting games, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is all about launching your opponent (or opponents) off the stage and off the screen. Use all sorts of attacks to build up your rivals’ damage, then send them flying off the stage…”
Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation (MOSEF) was founded in 2019 and works with high schools to spread Esports across Missouri. The organization started as nine educators, but now consists of over 200 schools that represent over 4,000 students. MOSEF is behind the scheduling and planning of Esports tournaments and the state competition.
Esports began at Webster in 2022 with Ken Winingham as one of two coaches. Alongside chemistry teacher Collin Todd, Winingham has helped to coach a number of students in Esports. The sport started out as a video game club and has now become a league for students to compete in.
In Esports, students have three practices a week and work to improve their skills on both JV and Varsity teams.
Winingham said, “These kids are spending so much time practicing and so much dedication that we don’t really refer to it as a game, because it’s work. There’s times where I don’t want to play games today, but I have to work on this technique, or I have to work on this strategy. It’s real dedication even though we are talking about games. You could say the same thing about any of the other sports. They are games that people get really dedicated to and become more than a game.”
This year, the State tournament was held at Piccadilly Palace in Union, MO. After finishing fifth in State last year, Bub came back this year and finished first.
About winning the tournament Bub said, “It felt really good because I did not do that well last year, and I lost to the person that I beat, so it was nice being able to win that.”
Winingham said, “We were ecstatic… These kids are working really hard. They don’t come home sore, but they do have to give up big chunks of their lives to actually do this thing, and one of the reasons I really love this sport is because this is a group of people that has felt ignored for a long, long time. They are really good at something, but that something is not something that the rest of the world sees.”
Winingham added, “Here we are, a whole group of kids that have never worn the Webster colors, never been a part of a team, never had their name screamed by a crowd, and now they have a way to do all those things and they love it. Watching them love it makes me love it.”
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Sam Enlund-Social Media/Sports Editor This will be Sam Enlund’s first year on ECHO staff. She also made several contributions while taking journalism class her freshman year. |
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