Arcadia High School’s Esports Club has already hosted many tournaments in different games, and their most recent and ongoing tournament takes place in the game “Valorant”. Advised by Mr. Zachary Baroni and led by founder senior Michelle Gao, the club continues to grow bigger and bigger as members look forward to joining tournaments hosted by the club.

“Valorant” is a first-person shooter game where teams of five face each other on several different maps. Teams can select different agents in order to face the opposing side. The game is developed and updated by Riot Games, a company primarily famous for its multiplayer online battle arena game “League of Legends”.

Tournaments are first announced on the club’s social media pages as well as its Discord server. After sign-up for the tournament is full, the club holds live drawings for the brackets to determine that the match-ups are fair. After that, all participants will join a custom lobby ten minutes prior to the start of the game to choose their side, which is determined by a coin flip. 

Tournaments led by the club are extremely organized as an official bracket is created; prizes from famous tech companies are distributed to the top finishers of a tourney. 

“All of the prizes are sponsored either by Cyberpower PC or Seasonic. Cyberpower PC has sponsored the Arcadia Esports Club since two years ago, while Seasonic is a new sponsor we got last semester,” said Michelle.

After the winners are determined, the club officers will send the prize packages to the winners’ addresses. To ensure that they have gotten their rewards, the officers have winners send a photo of themselves with the prizes. Photo collages of the three teams are posted on the official club Instagram page as well.

Among other things, this is the club’s second time holding a “Valorant” tournament as “Valorant” has been the most popular tournament. Originally, the club had held a “Valorant” tournament during first semester, but after experiencing an influx of members during the second semester, it is holding another one due to popular demand. 

“Out of all the tournaments we’ve hosted so far, ‘Valorant’ has been the most popular one. We decided to host a second ‘Valorant’ tournament for those who didn’t know about the Esports club before,” said Michelle.

Currently, the sign-ups for the tournament are full, and no future tournaments have been announced as the officers are focused on making the current “Valorant” tournament a success. However, the club will host casual tournaments monthly and competitive tournaments for prizes every quarter semester. Although they have not yet decided what the next tournament’s game will be, the officers are always taking requests from members. Be sure to check out the Arcadia Esports Club on Instagram or Discord!

Graphic courtesy of DOTESPORTS.COM