Junior Evan Phu’s computer flashes with bold, gold letters of the familiar phrase “Welcome to Summoner’s Rift” as Phu prepares to enter a game of League of Legends.
“I had a lot of people in mind when forming my team,” Phu said. “I had a list of players and I thoroughly picked the players that I thought would fit my expectations, if not exceed them. However, I think the team is performing worse than expected. League is a game that revolves around teamwork and although we are all really high ranked, we have problems with communicating, especially since it is harder to communicate under pressure.”
Just last month, Phu formed a team with Seniors Huy Ly, Thomas Ng and Juniors Steven Dang and Nagi Vergara. Phu takes on the responsibility of top lane, who absorbs most of the damage during the team fights. Ly plays support and heals his teammates as well as sets up their kills. As jungler, Dang kills monsters and helps other lanes by assisting in kills when necessary. Ng’s responsibilities as mid revolve around dealing damage using spells. Vergara as marksman, formerly known as attack damage carry (ADC) serves as the ranged attacker of the team that deals damage through buying items.
“We try to fit in as many games as we can, however sometimes it is not possible with our conflicting schedules,” Phu said. “Certain players had to leave because their schedules were too tight.”
Phu is currently practicing with his team to represent Temple City in the High School Star league, a national competition for students. Last year, the grand prize was $20,000 in scholarships. This year, the grand prize is expected to increase due to the influx of new players and teams.
“It is a long-term tournament,” Phu said. “We play rounds every week to determine which teams make it out of the group stages. The group stages are played weekly. We play two games against different high schools per group for ten weeks. This process reduces the number of high school teams and only the best teams will make it out of groups. There are about eight groups and about 50 high schools per group. By the end of the 10 weeks, only four teams will remain from each group. Then the remaining 32 high schools will compete for thousands of dollars worth of scholarships.”
The team practices on the weekend or whenever they can during the weekdays. They each play at their own houses. The time the team spends online averages to about two hours or approximately three games a week.
“I think I’m doing alright, not that great compared to the rest of the team though,” Dang said. “I think the team is doing pretty well except we don’t have many strategies to use. We also have some communication problems because we don’t talk too much in the game.”
Phu has been playing League for a few years now and he wants his time to pay off. The High School Star League gives him a chance to finally be rewarded for all his time and dedication spent playing.
TCHS School Newspaper