With an almost full classroom of interested students, the Maggie Walker Esports Club made its debut with its interest meeting on September 6th, 2022. Co-presidents Abhi Satpathy (‘23) and Michael Lusk (‘24) spoke about their goals and future plans for the competitive video-gaming club. Within its first month of official operation, the esports club’s Schoology group acquired over forty members, and it has no plans to stop there!

As a probationary group, the esports club was struggling to reach to the student body. Last year, the club only had one team for one game, which played League of Legends in the Virginia High School League (VHSL) 2022 spring season. Lusk notes that the new school year “allows [them] to advertise more and allows [them] to do more than just get people to [come to] the club through word of mouth.” When asked about the turnout of their interest meeting, Lusk states that he “thought it would be more of a niche club, but it turns out that there’s a lot of people who are interested in esports.” With the influx of so many new students this year, Satpathy and Lusk were able to successfully expand to a different league, the High School Esports League (HSEL), an esports program that operates beyond the state level.

When asked about the origin of the club, Lusk mentions how many high schools in his home county, Henrico, have esports teams. Upon seeing the success of these teams, Lusk wanted to bring an esports team to Maggie Walker. Now, the club has many students participating in the VHSL and the HSEL, where teams competitively play popular games, such as League of Legends, Valorant, Rocket League, and chess. Lusk himself has been playing with the League of Legends team for the past year and will continue playing this year.

The club sponsor, Mr. Patrick Kennedy, a math teacher and game enthusiast himself, provided insight on the club’s administrative details and plans for the Fall Festival. He notes that the club presidents “have really taken the reins of this club. They’ve written a constitution, they take attendance at meetings, schedule meetings, and put together both of the online teams.” In a few weeks, the club will have its first booth at Fall Fest. The plan, Kennedy explains, is to “set up a TV with a Nintendo Switch, and people [will] pay tickets to play either Super Smash Brothers or Mario Kart.” As for the rest of the year, Kennedy states he is “really excited to see the growth of the club!”

Throughout its first year of operation, the Maggie Walker Esports Club hopes to interest many more Dragon gamers, not only to play video games but also to connect and befriend likeminded peers.