Sports 7

Alpharetta High School Football Season in Review

Curtis Mclelland

Despite losing in the third round of the
playoffs, this was a very successful season
for the Raider Football team, one in which
the team went undefeated in region play, and
after losing the opening game to Milton, em-
barked on an 11 game winning streak. This
streak included convincing wins against
Pope (34-17) and Johns Creek (36-7), de-
monstrating to the entire region and the state
of Georgia that Alpharetta is a well-rounded
team and a force to be reckoned with.
Several players realized their potential
this year and stood out over the course of
the season. Some of these players were reco-
gnized on the All-Region team, as QB Mat-
thew Downing and DT Nick Markus won
region offensive and defensive player of the
year, respectively. Coach Jacob Nichols won
coach of the year.
Receiving first team honors were RB
Nolan Edmonds, OL Connor Johnson, DL
Jack Stanton, LB Reid Schulz, and DB
Jaycee Horn. Receiving second team
honors were WR Spencer Gaddis, OL
Junior Uzebu, LB Dane Motley, DB
Marcus Webster, DB Alonzo Nelson, and
ATH Marcus Hill. Honorable mentions
included WR Michael Marbaugh, K Dy-
lan Schorr, and DL Jackson Michaels.
It is clear that Alpharetta was an elite
team not only in region play, but also
during the playoffs, defeating Gaines-
ville comfortably and holding on to win
against Douglas County. Several seniors
look to continue their football careers in
college, notably Junior Uzebu, with a
hard commit to West Virginia University
and Spencer Gaddis, with a hard commit
to Western Kentucky University. Howe-
ver, Alpharetta still has many returning
starters who intend to improve upon their
successes of this year next season.

Photo Credits:
Maia Gibson: Left Top, Left Middle, Left Bottom, Bottom, Right Top, Right Middle
Curtis McClelland: Right Middle, Right Bottom

Kyle Wong
Esports: The New Frontier
has the gaming industry been gotten popular to the point that
From an online laugh-
Wikimedia Commons

sponsored by many compa- the League of Legends champi-

ing stock to one of the fastest
growing industries, profes-
sional gaming has become the
next major form of entertain-
ment. Esports is a new form
of competition where players
and competitors play a game
on a gaming console that in-
corporates strategy, knowl-
edge, memorization and skill.
People from all over the world
compete in intense sessions of
gaming for rewards, recogni-
tion and fame. Esports have
gone through a great deal of
change and development. Pro-
fessional players have compet-
ed in multiple popular games
such as World of Warcraft,
Call of Duty, Overwatch,
Dota 2 and League of Leg-
Wikimedia Commons
nies but it has also provided onship beat the National Basket-
opportunities to many fast ball Association in viewerships
growing companies and inno- according to ESPN. With this
vations in the gaming indus- level of viewership, the League
try like Razer, Oculus Rift, of Legends championship games
and DXRacer. These innova- has a prize pool of 5 million dol-
tions further enhance gaming, lars in comparison to NBAs
Blizzard Entertainment is one of the biggest video game developers that cre-
ated some of the most iconic games such as Hearthstone, Overwatch, causing it to go in a new direc- prize pool of 2.6 million dollars.
and World of Warcraft.
tion. Many of these companies Esports is on its way to becom-
are already on the stock market ing a billion dollar industry in
ends. ers play against each other on
or are soon to be on the stock the following years, surpassing
Gaming has become a ma- their gaming consoles over the market. many competitive sports scenes
jor part of peoples daily lives internet, local area network Meanwhile, the emer- on mainstream television today.
all over the world. According (LAN) competitions and even gence of mobile gaming, es- What makes Esports even more
to the Entertainment Software major tournaments are held to ports and virtual reality are interesting is the constant de-
Association (ESA), more than crown the best players. poised to take the industry by velopment of more genres and
150 million people in America As reported by ESA, storm in the next few years. unique games that constantly
play video games, with 42% Sixty-five percent of Ameri- With the industry growing at a keeps Esports fresh and attractive
of Americans playing more can households are home to rapid clip, it should be near the to all types of audience mem-
than 3 hours every week. A someone who plays video top of any investors list, Tre- bers. The future of Esports lies in
games popularity comes from games regularly, and 67 per- vir Nath, a NASDAQ investor, its young, growing fan base and
the adrenaline-filled, cent of American households said. ever changing nature.
competitive nature of own a device used to play vid- The Esports industry has

a world with limitless eo games.

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abilities to rack up points Gaming has not only be-

against other people. come popular through the
Games with these com- passionate players, but also
petitive scenes consist through major companies and
of multiple genres such their sponsors. Major com-
as first person shooter, panies such as Doritos, Red
multiplayer online battle Bull, Microsoft, and Twitch
Cloud 9 is a professional esports team that par- arena, real time strategy, have all invested in esports
ticipates in games such as League of Legends, and massively multiplay- in the hopes that esports will
Overwatch, and PlayerUnknowns Battle-
grounds. er online role-playing become the next big thing in
games. While most play- the world of sports. Not only In 2016, the League of Legends world championship took place at the Staples Center
in Los Angeles, Calif.