The ÉDS Dragons took part in the Manitoba School Esports Association Scholastic Esports Expo (MSEA SEE) on May 25th and 26th. It was the largest scholastic esports event ever held in Manitoba, with 20 schools across 8 divisions competing in 4 game titles together at the Red River College Polytech Manitou a bi Bii daziigae building in downtown Winnipeg! 15 middle years schools took part in the event, and competed in Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokemon Unite, and Brawlhalla. ÉDS was well represented in each title, and finished strong, taking home the MSEA SEE Championship in Rocket League on the Main Stage in front of a live audience in a 3-game Best-of-5 sweep of the Stonybrook Middle School Knights from Steinbach. It was intense!
The event was full of opportunities for our students, with keynote panels from Ubisoft Winnipeg discussing Game Design and Shadi Hanna, head coach of esports and esports arena manager from Keyano College discussing esport pedagogy, the benefits of it happening in school, and the opportunities that esports can lead to. Tables in the vendor area offered the students opportunities to try on VR Devices, explore professional and amateur esport opportunities in Manitoba, and meet the local professional team from Lotus 8 Esports.
Middle Years students competed, supported, learned, and laughed together as, thanks to a last-minute fundraising push for the Children’s Hospital Foundation in partnership with Extra Life, the EDS Dragons earned enough money to saran wrap and pie Mr. Koblun and Mr. Hrabi in the face to end the event on Friday. What a rush, and we are looking forward to next years’ event already!
And with that, we come to the end of our year in esports! A huge thank you to all our parents and community members who have supported our program this year, and to all the competitors who have brought glory and honour to our school and our program both with exciting victories and with excellent display of sportsmanship. Thank you to Sunrise School Division and IT staff who have supported us with our launch of our Esports Lab this year. To our admin who continue to support the growth and development of our program year-over-year, and a MASSIVE thank you to the tireless efforts of our Directors and Coaches, Jodi Craigen, Ryan Hrabi, and Nathan Koblun, without whom this program would not be possible to run.
The stream of the MSEA SEE can be found at www.twitch.tv/MSEA_gg and we hope you take some time to check it out.
*MSEA SEE Champions* - Rocket League: Levi Rosenthal, Korben Meadows-Seidler, Owen Lee
Top 8 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: C.J. Latiza, Jerrick Dueck
Top 4 - Pokémon Unite: Ryder Harder, Julian Trudel, Zephyr Penner, Eric Schellenberg, Adam Klassen
Top 8 - Brawlhalla: Sean Poirier, Owen Lee