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PERHAM — In the first year of its esports program, the Perham-Dent School District finished on top.
Five Prairie Wind Middle School team members dominated at this year’s state esports competition, finishing undefeated and becoming the 2022 state champions. The Fenworks State Tournament was held in Grand Forks, North Dakota on April 1-2.
Perham students Levi Baumgart, Aiden Burke, Marcus Cupkie, Jaxon Pickrain and Jacoby Pokrzwinski competed.
«To win felt like something off our shoulder,» said Baumgart. «We were worrying about it all weekend, and it’s just like, we’re state champions finally! It was a relief.»
«I saw us winning the moment we were signing up for esports,» added Cupkie. «We definitely deserved it.»
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The five teammates put in plenty of work, and it paid off. Competing in the video game «Valorant,» a character-based multiplayer game in which characters have special powers and gather weapons to take out opponents, the Perham team lost only a couple of games all season, and won their overall tournaments. When they went to state, they were undefeated, 9–0.
As state champions, they maintain that undefeated record.
Pickrain, Baumgart and Cupkie had prior experience with «Valorant,» having played the game on their own before esports was introduced in the Perham school district. The three of them all have high ranks in the game, with Pickrain and Baumgart both «diamond» rank, the third-highest achievable rank, and Cupkie at «immortal» rank, which only the top one percent of players in the region attain.
Pokrzwinski and Burke are newer to «Valorant» and have yet to play enough games to achieve a rank, but they are well on their way.
All of the players are dedicated to esports, sharing a love for gaming. They said it’s an exciting experience to be able to do something they already enjoyed in their free time as a school activity.
«(I got involved because the school) said something about it on the announcements,» Burke recalled. «I immediately went in and joined that night.»
Pokrzwinski’s mother saw a post about esports on Facebook and told her son about it, and soon after, he joined.
Cupkie was ready to join before the school even had an esports program: «As a joke, I asked if they thought about doing esports, and surprisingly they said they were thinking about it and that they’d keep me updated,» he said.
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Already friends, Pickrain and Baumgart joined the team alongside Cupkie when esports was introduced.
And Burke and Pokrzwinski, though new to the group, fit right in and found it easy to work with the team after the first few weeks of getting to know each other.
By the time of the state competition, the team competed together seamlessly.
«In those final matches, you could tell that (the team members) were coordinated, » said Justin Sonnenberg, general manager of Perham’s esports. «They were able to spread out when they needed to, and come together and punch through when they needed to, as well.»
Each individual player developed and honed his own skills and niche among the team as the group played and strategized their games. Cupkie creates space and takes on the first fights for the team; Pickrain, Baumgart, and Burke use utilities to help Cupkie take on those fights, and Pokrzwinski supports and defends his teammates.
The five enjoyed a successful year in esports, and according to them, finishing undefeated feels good.
«I know that next season, we’re probably all going to do it again,» said Pokrzwinski. «I’m going to get a PC so that I can practice more.»
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