Raiders esports wrap up spring regular season - Heading for playoffs

Portland esports just finished their spring regular season matches. Each team competes over 8 weeks to get the best record possible. Your record seeds you for the playoffs where you compete to be the best team in the state. This spring we competed in six titles: Splatoon 3, Valorant, Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Varsity and JV), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Fortnite: Zone Wars. Five of those teams have made the playoffs and will start competing next week.

Splatoon 3 had one of the best seasons of all of our teams. They finished 6-2 and in 4th of 29 teams in the state. The main players on this team were Logan Hanson, Noah Pohl, Arturo Hanje, and Dakota Schneider. They were really impressive in the majority of their matches and won very quickly throughout the season. Due to some scheduling conflicts we are trying to find a makeup date for their first playoff match against Escanaba. It should be sometime the week of April 21.

Valorant had a rougher season than most teams. Valorant is a game that is taken very seriously by a lot of schools and we're just getting off the ground. Our team of Gage Larson, Keegan Stair, Joey Ballard, Nolan Schneider, and Zachary Roof did everything they could this season. Unfortunately they managed a 3-5 record which put them 30th of 47 teams in the state. This wasn't enough to make the playoffs. We're hoping to find some great players next year and have a better fall season.

Super Smash Bros got the most interest from players and we managed to form two teams this season, a varsity and JV squad. The varsity team was Logan Hanson, Noah Pohl, and Nolan Schneider. While the JV team was Zachary Roof, Gage Larson, and Joey Ballard. Both teams made the playoffs. Varsity finished 5-3. This put them 36th of 126 teams in the state. JV finished 4-4 and 29th of 73 teams. The varsity team will start their playoff against Huron HS on April 28 and the JV team will start April 29 against Garden City.

Mario Kart 8 finished in the top 8 of the state last season. As a result, they got some harder matches this season. They only managed a 5-3 record. This puts them in 24th of 86 teams. They'll have a bit harder of a path if they want to finish top 8 again. They were led by Matthew Simon, Sora Schneider, Arturo Hanje, and Ayden Hoort. The playoff bracket hasn't been set for them yet so we don't know who they will play, but their first match will be April 29.

Fortnite: Zone Wars is a two person title. Last season it was regional so we played the whole east coast. This season the Michigan High School Esports League (MHSEL) has picked it up so we are competing at a state level. The team of Keegan Stair and Ben Endres finished top 16 in the region last year. Ben has been replaced by Dakota Schneider and the team is looking for a great state finish this season too. They were 6-2 over the regular season. This makes them 7th out of 98 teams. This is another title where the bracket hasn't been set, but they'll play April 28th.

All matches are played at 4 PM (although actual start times vary.) Anyone interested in cheering us on can search for Portland High School Esports on YouTube. There they can find upcoming matches, live events, and replays of every match from all three seasons.