Roosevelt Esport club joins HSEL

By Zakary Rodriguez | Advertising Manager |

During the 2018-2019 school year, DATA saw the birth of a new club that was unlike any other at Roosevelt. Seniors Dean Becker and Brandon Knox founded the DATA esports club, which is an official club of the High School Esport League (HSEL).

Esports as a serious profession has been a topic of discussion that has been gaining traction over recent years. With this rise in popularity, Knox and Becker sought out to form a club that expanded to more people, seen as gaming is something almost any can do. Their goal was to create a new environment and place for gaming at Roosevelt, but it wasn’t a new idea to them.

“Freshman year we found the organization, that we eventually used, and said ‘hey this would be cool’,” club co-founder, Dean Becker, said. “I hoped to form a group for people who needed teammates to play with and a place where we can all have a common interest.” 

One of the teams from Roosevelt playing at LFG Cybercafe

 However, getting the club to where it is now, even though it’s still in its early stages, came with some difficulty. The main issue being that NEISD, understandably, takes issue with games being directly on their computers. Because of this, the club has partnered with the local gaming café, LFG Cybercafe, who has let them play there for a reduced price, which allowed them to play in the Spring Major for HSEL. At the major, they had teams playing Overwatch, League of Legends, Rocket League, and CSGO. 

“I wanted to show that it can be done,” club co-founder, Brandon Knox, said. “We had to go through district about it and data.”

Only recently, the club given approval to have games on school computers, but even that came with the restriction that they could only be games rated T for Teen, by the ESRB, and below. But even that will take time as there have been some problems with the firewall. Regardless though, it’s clear that the club is definitely moving forward.

“I think we’ll also probably run some, once we get that approval, probably run some internal leagues here on campus, and play some internal championship type stuff,” club sponsor, Paul Fritz, said. “We have a lot of students that are interested in playing the different games but haven’t played them a lot so they don’t have a lot of skill, so we need to develop that as well.” 

Meetings consist of playing some internal games for practice and discussions of fundraising for gear such as gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets. The club currently has meetings every Wednesday after school from 4:30 to around 5:30 in Mr. Fritz’s room D24.