Lindbergh ESports Makes State Finals

Taking a look at the underappreciated esports team of Lindbergh

Loveless showing off the Lindbergh Esports jersey Photo Credit to Sam Elliott

Over the past two decades, video games have become more and more popular; their popularity has reached across the earth and has taken over almost every form of media. This is especially true when it comes to livestreams, which have helped to popularize competitive gaming. Esports has always been a lingering aspect in the culture of gaming, but it wasn’t until the later 2010’s that it really took a turn into becoming a billion dollar industry and made its way into schools across the country.  

Lindbergh is one of these schools with digital extracurriculars . One that many might not know about is the Esports team. An Esports team is an array of gamers who compete against others in virtual games as opposed to physical sports. While this may not gain as large of a crowd, it still garnered over 1.3 billion dollars last year through esport events. It’s even projected to make well over 1.8 billion dollars in 2025. 

Lindbergh High School’s Esports team hit its second year running, having a strong showing this past fall, and now the team is hoping to continue that strength into its upcoming spring season. With Rocket League and Overwatch in the fall, and Super Smash Brothers and Valorant in the spring as game options. Though there are only four game options now, Keith Loveless, coach of the Esports team, said they look to add League of Legends at some point. 

“We started out for the very first time in the fall with only Rocket League.” Loveless added. 

Tryouts for spring esports will take place in January, 2023.

“Basically as far as organizing stuff, each week we’ll have practice, typically after school for each game title. Usually 3:15 to 5:00,” Loveless said. 

In addition to their training schedule, Loveless explained  that the seasons last about three months each. He said they even or ganize scrimmages with other schools in order to test their skills for real tournaments. 

“In each season we’ve done so far we’ve made state,” said Loveless, which is by no means an easy feat. They’re competing with several other schools from across the state to try and get into finals. For Rocket League there were 73 total schools competing in MOSEF, only the top 18 teams in Missouri made state, and Lindbergh High Schools team brought home second place. For Overwatch there are a total of 40 Missouri schools, but only the top five made it to state with Lindbergh taking third. 

Loveless thinks that the future of Esports is bright and maybe even profitable. “Maryville University is one of the top Esports advocates and is actually in the process of developing an Esports center,” said Loveless. The purpose for the building would be to act as a venue to hold events and promote Esports as a whole in order to get more people invested in it; also to show people that it is a viable option for a future, including things such as scholarships. 

“Yes, even if you’ve barely played the game, it teaches you a lot about strategy, team coordination, and managing time.” Alex Watt (12) said when asked if joining the Esports team was something anyone should consider. 

“I would recommend people come join, everyone is nice and fun to hang out with, and our teams are actually really good so if you’re looking to get better and have fun you should join.” Owen Donze (12) when asked the same question.

Scholarships in gaming have also become much more popular within the last decade. Colleges will host state final events such as the ones Lindbergh’s teams have attended and give out scholarships. Such schools are SLU, Lindenwood University and several more. Multiple students from our own teams have even been reached out to by some colleges with scholarship opportunities after watching their performance in these events.