Here come the new challengers

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This article was published 30/01/2020 (2184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When people think back on famous Canada-versus-U.S. matchups, they probably won’t consider the bout between the esports teams of Archwood School and James Monroe Middle School of Albuquerque, N.M.

But perhaps they should — as the online battle between the two could well be the start of something big.

The two schools squared off  online in a first-of-its kind tournament on Jan. 29, playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, which both teams specialize in. Both schools are in the midst of their first year of competitive esports play, and found each other through Twitter.

The teams had a couple of things in common: a love of gaming and sights set on bigger, grander stages.

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First up to represent Archwood was Grade 5 student Rosie Morrisseau. Though technically on the school’s development team, her older teammates voted her onto the Canada/U.S. squad due to her abilities, which are well beyond her years.

The soft-spoken 10-year-old plays an aggressive game, represented by her choice of Ridley, the massive Saurian antagonist of the Metroid franchise.

Opposite her, bearing the alias “SuperMan06” was James Monroe’s player, represented by the cherubic Toon Link, of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, players select from a roster of famous video game characters from various franchises, and then battle to knock one another off a floating platform.

The more damage a character accumulates, the easier it can be knocked out of the ring. In the case of Morrisseau vs. SuperMan06, the first to score three knockout was declared the winner of a round and they played best two-out -of three rounds

Morrisseau’s strategy was simple: use Ridley’s superior size and power to her advantage. She proved herself adept at controlling the ground game, using her character’s grappling ability to great advantage.

However, her foe proved tricky to handle, launching powerful, difficult-to-avoid attacks when the two clashed mid-air. Morrisseau won the first round, while the second went to Monroe. The rubber match was hotly contested but in the end the American team took it.

After the match, Morrisseau was roundly applauded by her teammates and head coach — music teacher Melissa Burns — for a match well fought, and took a moment to speak with media for a post-match recap.

“(Ridley) can take a lot of damage,” she said of her character choice. “She doesn’t die quickly, and some of her attack can do a lot of damage, especially the down and side specials.”

Morrisseau has been playing Smash for about a year. She said she came to be on the tournament roster after a remarkable performance against some of her older teammates.

“I was playing with my partner…. He’s in Grade 5, so am I. We were in practise for development team,” she said.

Matched up against a pair of Grade 8 players, she defeated both soundly — five times, she recalls.

“That’s how Ms. Burns let me into the tournament.”

She said there’s a good deal of practice involved — the team goes to work three days a week during lunch and recess breaks.

After Morrisseau’s match, she retired to the back of the room to watch the action. In the end, Monroe took the tournament 3-2. But, like many youth coaches, Burns said the contest wasn’t all about winning.

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Burns founded the team as well as the league in which the team plays — Middle Years Esports Manitoba.

Though Archwood’s team — now 12 members strong, plus development team members — has been around for about four years, this is the first year they’ve been playing as a sanctioned, competitive squad. There are now seven competitive teams.

Burns, 32, is a lifelong gamer, and she said she felt it was time for schools to get in on esports. Gaming competitions have boomed in popularity across the world, expanding to include globe-spanning tournaments and making royalty of its elite players, who reap the benefits common to pro athletes, high-profile endorsements and fame among them.

“When I started four years ago, there was no middle years esports,” Burns said.
“I couldn’t figure out why this multi-billion dollar industry was not being done at the middle years level. I asked my principal and she didn’t really understand what it was but was very supportive and let me give it a go.”

Beyond all that, Burns said she felt esports could be a way to give kids who weren’t interested in traditional sports some lessons their more athletic peers might learn.

“There are a lot of transferable life skills. Critical thinking, computational thinking, being able to troubleshoot technology. Not only that, but it gave the students who are not necessarily athletically inclined to be involved in something that taught them sportsmanship,” Burns said.

“They’re going home and spending hours a day playing on their own and now they had somewhere to belong, where they had a physical community.”

In addition, there’s the issue of what Burns refers to as “digital citizenship.” Competing in gaming, and online to boot, offers kids the chance to learn how to manage high-pressure interactions online in a mature way.

“We talk a lot about cyberbullying,” Burns said. “This gave me a very unique opportunity to talk to them, to bring it into the school… We’re embracing it here and opening up that conversation, allowing them to see when emotions get high, how do you deal with those emotions, and not become toxic? How do you win graciously?”

The Canada/ U.S. tournament was unprecedented for the league but it’s far from the end of the road for Archwood. They have a busy schedule ahead before going for the top prize in the province.

“Right now we’re in our first sanctioned league, so we have six weeks of gameplay coming up. This week we’re obviously taking a bye but then next week we’ll jump into that. Then we have a couple of tournaments coming up that will qualify us for provincials,” Burns said.