Our very own West Branch Warrior eSports team finished last year’s season with a win in the finals, making them champions. They were selected as the eighth team out of nine teams chosen for playoffs. Before getting to the championship, they first had to win two games. They beat Greater Johnstown and then had to face Forrest Hills, the number one seed because they had won it all the year before. West Branch beat Forrest Hills, putting them in the championship game. Now in the finals, they had to play against Shade Central who they had previously lost to in their first game of the season. After several close matches, they pulled out the win and were named champions! This was a very successful first year for the brand-new program at West Branch High School.

The team plans on continuing the program again this year but with a few changes. With two teams, each team lost a member due to them both being seniors. With the program’s successful first year, it got a lot of attention, which had many new and excited people sign up. Jonah Porter said, “I hope we can recruit some new talent.” 

One of the main changes they plan on doing this year is splitting their new and old talent into two groups. The two brand-new teams will be a competition and a club team. The competition team will consist of everyone from last year who is still playing, plus two new talents to fill the spots of the two seniors they lost at the end of last year’s season. The club team will not compete, but it is more designed for people who just want to play for fun or are new to the program and just want to try it out. Jonah said, “Overall, I think we’ll be better than last year, and I think we will have a good shot to win it all again.” With the start of their new season just around the corner, make sure to wish our eSports team the best of luck as they hope to be back-to-back champions.