In the University of Montana’s University Center Commons, Griz Esports assistant director Cale Patenaude surveys a buzzing array of student athletes on a Saturday morning. Some wore team uniforms. Others “warmed up” for the day’s events on tabletop game consoles.
“I’m looking across the room, and when we started this two years ago, I remember it was, like, literally just this half,” Patenaude said as he welcomed the students. “And now we’re literally spanning the entirety of the commons.”
The high-school gamers were there to clash in rocket-powered soccer matches and cartoon beat-em-ups at the University’s third annual high school spring esports championship.
Interest in organized, competitive video gaming in Treasure State high schools has boomed in recent years after the University of Montana began coordinating a season. After several weeks playing against each other over the internet, teams trekked to Missoula to face off in a spring tournament. Patenaude told MTPR the first in 2023 featured eight schools. This year, that number climbed to 18.
The students play Rocket League — soccer with souped-up cars — cartoon fighting game Super Smash Bros., and team-based shooters Valorant and Overwatch.
After introductory remarks from Patenaude, the players spilled out into the University Center’s hallways to head to their first matches. Outside the gaming lab, Rena Schaefbauer waited for her great-nephew Zander’s turn to play. She drove more than 9 hours from Watford City, North Dakota to watch him compete.
“When our kids were kids, they had Nintendo and Pac-Man,” Schaefbauer said with a laugh. “This is a little bit different.”
Her nephew, Baker High School student Zander Rost, warmed up for his match at a PC inside the lab. Earlier this year, his high rank earned him the chance to compete in Rocket League nationally in Ohio. Rost said the experience was eye-opening, but his favorite part of competitive gaming is playing with his team.
“Everyone that I play with, that’s just my friends,” Rost said. “It’s fun to just play with them a game that we love.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Sidney High School senior Paul Gonsalez, a Smash Bros. player who gave some live commentary for an online stream.
“And, that’s game,” Gonsalez said, holding a microphone. “That is a Colstrip victory.”
He’s gone to the tournament with his team all three years.
“It’s lovely. It’s just so cool — it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been to,” Gonsalez said between matches. “I love little activities like this; I hope to go to school here.”
The worst part, he said, was the drive. Sidney is about as far from Missoula as you can get, without leaving Montana.
“Ten hours!” Gonzalez exclaimed. “Ten hours. That was the most painful 10 hours of my life.”
It was worth the pain, he said. So does his head coach, Russell Biniek. He was across the hall, supervising his team in a Valorant match.
“It’s the one thing where kids who don’t fit in anywhere else in any school have a place to go to,” Biniek said. “Pretty much everybody games; you can find your people through the system, and that’s the real beauty of it.”
And, if reaction from the streaming room was anything to go on, esports aren’t too bad for spectators, either — a group of parents watching a stream nearby cheered on their kids’ Rocket League match with the same enthusiasm as any basketball game.
