Schaumburg’s eSports pairing of Damian Long and Soya Lee finished second place in the Super Smash Doubles category at the inaugural eSports IHSA state tournament this past weekend at Bloomington High School.   They were accompanied by teammate Shivam Patel, who also qualified for the state tournament but was unable to compete.

Originally released in 1999, Super Smash Bros, a multiplayer fighting game by Nintendo, features characters from various Nintendo franchises.  While there are a number of characters for players to play, each featuring different skills and moves, the premise of the gameplay is simple.  The fight requires gamers to knock opponents off of a stage; the player left standing, wins.  Although it sounds easy, playing at the competition-level requires skilled execution that only comes through practice and strategy.

After a successful season, hope for success ran high.  Unfortunately Long and Lee lost their opening match but battled all the way back, winning six matches in a row.  The win streak propelled them to the finals before eventually running out of steam in the championship round of the state tournament. Given the fact that this marks the first year of organized competition, everyone was thrilled with the results. 

“The best thing for us as a team was definitely our synergy,” Long stated. “We already understood how each other played, and we just kept winning.”

Prior to the state tournament, the Schaumburg esports team took second place at the MSL Conference Championship at Hoffman Estates High School. At the tournament, Soya Lee and Damian Long kept their undefeated season going as they took first in Smash Doubles. Arion Peralta and Tyler Cohen took 3rd place in SMASH Doubles. Michael Homola took 3rd in Smash Singles and Shivam Patel took second in NBA2k. Our Rocket League team of Michael Connolly, Rohan Sharma and Eros Somarriba took 2nd place.

“Playing Rocket League for Schaumburg High School was a great way to end senior year,” stated Rohan Sharma. 

At the Sectionals tournament, also held at Hoffman Estates High School, Matt Pacione took 4th place in Smash Singles. Shivam Patel fought his way back to the championship match, taking the first game of the double elimination final and then coming back from 15 points down to finish 2nd and advance to the state tournament. Soya Lee and Damian Long took 1st place in the sectional in Smash Doubles.

The team credits hours of playing and having fun and hopes to make it back to state to take first place in multiple events. 

“We had a good group that helped iron out all the kinks in a first year program and set the foundation for a successful program for the future,” Coach Koschnitzke said. “Ultimately, hard work and perseverance paid off.”