He quickly realized that, yeah, his skills weren’t even close to those he was tasked with lead- ing. And that, ladies and gen- tlemen, speaks to the quality of players housed on our team. “I would not make it on our varsity, which I’m very happy to say,” Chung said. “I’m not bad, but I wouldn’t even be in the top half of our group. I could not beat our varsity kids except for maybe every once in a while, and our top three, I can’t even touch them. I don’t even try any- more.” Under the esports umbrella, Super Smash Bros. is back at Gilbert for its third season, and Chung is optimistic this will be the best one yet. The Tigers have reached the Division III state tournament in each of the past two seasons, but they haven’t been able to get over that hump on the big stage. Is this the year Gilbert brings home a Super Smash Bros. state championship trophy to sit alongside the top prize the Mario Kart team won last spring? Chung is keeping his ul- timate hopes and dreams close to the vest, but let’s just say the expectations have never been higher. “I’ve got big goals for this group,” Chung said. “We have a lot of returning varsity (contrib- utors) and all of our players
have gotten significantly better (since the 2023 season).” A chunk of the fall team is comprised of players from the spring state championship team, but with different games comes different skill sets. In other words, being a state champion- ship Mario Kart player doesn’t mean that success will translate over to Super Smash Bros. “I know they loved getting that state championship, that was so exciting for everybody,” Chung said. “But I do know the kids also acknowledge they use dif- ferent skills in the two titles. Take Miles Britt, for example. Miles is one of the best Mario Kart players in the state. He’s very good at Super Smash Bros. too, but he downplays his skills a little bit whereas in Mario Kart, he knows he’s really good.” Britt, along with Carter Hodgen and Nick Staudt, give Gilbert a formidable trio at the top of the lineup. Sam Ellingson isn’t far behind, and a slew of other players — Evan Larwick, Ian Larwick, Jackson Riesselman, Raymond Lopez, and Sarah Gustafson — all possess varsity experience. Gilbert’s varsity team put to- gether a 6-1 regular season in 2023, and the junior varsity squad was 6-3. The Tigers’ lone loss came at the hands of state power Waterloo East, and that’s a match Chung has circled on his calendar this fall.
“Nevada has been a good rival for us, mainly because of prox- imity, but also because they’ve been good,” Chung said. “Wa- terloo East, at least as a coach, that’s the one I’m saying we want to win this year, and they’re so good.” Getting to the point of con- tending for a state crown has meant plenty of offseason prac- tice. Chung said he opened the lab up to his players for vol- unteer work last spring, and in addition to the hour of practice time each day in the fall, the coach says some of his players will hone their skills on their own for hours in the evenings. “I know there are some kids that don’t touch it after they leave (practice), but some are probably spending three or four hours most days on the game,” Chung said. That leads us into the question some of you might be asking — what exactly is Super Smash Bros? The game takes a variety of characters — 89 of them in all — from various other video games for a mash-up of sorts. In Super Smash Bros., it’s a one- on-one battle between char- acters to see which rules. In each one-on-one platform fight, each player receives three stocks (lives). The objective is simple — to pummel the oppo- nent to where all three stocks
are eliminated. But there’s more to the game than just being quick on the con- troller. Players also have to study the characters, learn their strengths and weaknesses, and then be able to perform and react quickly under pressure. “You have to be able to think on your toes because this is a fast-moving game, especially at the highest levels,” Chung said. “If you can take advantage of that, you can win easily. And if you don’t, you’ll find yourself not being able to touch other people.” The talent and passion on the team is off the charts, and that pleases Chung. But there’s a bigger picture, one the coach sees on a daily basis. The Super Smash Bros. team, and esports in general, have created a new community at the high school, one where kids feel a part of something special, and many have seen an increase in confidence because of it. That supersedes any game suc- cesses. “There are kids that I had in my classroom that didn’t talk,” Chung said. “But they come into esports and they own the room. They’re humorous, they know what they’re doing much more than me, they share their knowl- edge about it, and they’re ex- cited about it. It’s incredible to see.”
FALL 2024 | GAME ON 59
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