It is said that all good things come to an end, which evidently includes high school esports teams. The Loy Norrix Esports team recently said goodbye to its advisor, Patrick Greeley, who has accepted a job offer at Portage Northern this summer.  

Since it was founded in 2018, the Loy Norrix esports team has won many awards, such as a 1st place victory in the Overwatch 2018 Michigan High School Esports Federation tournament. 

All of this was accomplished under the watchful eye of Greeley, former math teacher at Norrix. However, he recently left Norrix, which means that officially, the Loy Norrix Esports team was frozen. This left the many students on the esports team unable to compete in tournaments until they found a new adult to fill the role of advisor. 

Now filling the role as advisor will be forensic science teacher Brandon Wood, who teaches in room C-19. 

“For now, I’m just going to do what Greeley did until things stabilize and I can get some experience,” said Wood.

With an advisor, the team can finally continue with playing in tournaments such as the upcoming MIHSEF (Michigan High School Esports Federation) tournament. Wood also mentioned the possibility of setting up an esports lab. 

“But the funding [for an esports lab] isn’t there right now, and it is not a huge priority for the school to set up. I still think it’s a good idea,” said Wood.

The teams that operated under Greeley have had an exciting run with plenty of wins and losses and hope to continue with a very exciting season.

“Well, we had to win 6 matches, just to get to third, and it was just an unbelievable day,” Greeley continued. “And so that was happening upstairs—the Smash Brothers tournament, and downstairs was the Overwatch tournament, and the other [Overwatch] team was really trash talking and blowing themselves up, and we just wiped them four to zero.” 

That day, the Overwatch team brought home the trophy without a single loss. The Smash Brothers team did very well, but did not ultimately win the tournament. 

“My main responsibility was finding tournaments for the kids and acting as a responsible adult,” Greeley said. 

There is currently great need for new members of the various teams. If you play Rocket League, Overwatch or Smash Bros., then Wood asks you to speak to him in C19. The Overwatch team especially is down a player. 

“I started as captain in the year of 2020, and am still captain,” Overwatch team captain junior Foster Neve-Jones said. “I’d like to hope we can get the students to play in the tournament, but I’m hoping for some fresh blood to revitalize things a bit.” 

With the Overwatch team being down a main support since that student graduated last year, it will be difficult for them. 

The esports team has been around since 2018, but given that students graduate, new members will need to come in and replace the old ones. If you play Overwatch, Smash Bros, Rocket League, or feel like you just want to connect with other gamers, speak to Wood or email him about joining the team. 

If you want to support the team but don’t play any video games, then all of the tournaments are streamed live on Twitch.