Cambridge Rocket League competing at state tournament.

CAMBRIDGE − The Cambridge High School eSports Rocket League team won the regional championship recently and will now advance to the state championship this weekend at the University of Akron.

The team of seniors Briley Hamm and Andrew LaPlante and junior Brayden Wagner defeated Lordstown High School 3-1 in the regional semi-final and then Alexander High School 4-0 in the final.

The state championship this weekend is the first-ever OHSAA-recognized eSport state championship for Rocket League.

The Rocket League team won the regional tournament and has defeated Ohio University, Marietta College, Ohio State University and Alabama University Rocket League teams in scrimmages in the past month.

"I reached out to the OU eSports coach and explained that I am an alumnus and coaching," Boyd explained. "I told them how talented our rocket league team is and that we don't see a lot of competition at the high school level. I told them we were trying to prepare for the postseason and started a conversation with them about a potential scrimmage and it's grown from there as we’ve been able to scrimmage several college teams."

The team advanced to regionals last year with Hamm and LaPlante leading the way and then added Wagner, a transfer to Cambridge from Florida, this season.

"Briley is a really great Rocket League player," Boyd said. "We competed at regionals last year, and that was mostly Briley carrying the team and Andrew is pretty good as well.

"Last year, near the end of the year, Wagner moved into the district and Brayden is actually a higher-ranked Rocket League player than Briley," Boyd explained. "Now, we have two kids who are college-level Rocket League players."

Hamm has already signed a national letter of intent to complete for Muskingum University next year along with teammate LaPlante.

The team competes in the eSports Ohio league which has teams playing several different titles. According to Boyd, there are 86 high school teams competing in Rocket League. The Bobcats went 7-1 in Rocket League matches this season with the only loss being impacted by missing players.

The rest of the eSports team includes Brandyn Law, Nathan Dovenbarger, and Chance Totman who will occasionally sub into the lineup on the Rocket League team but also participates in other gaming titles.

This year Downtown Arena purchased jerseys for the team. More sponsors are welcome.

Grant money was used to purchase some gaming equipment at the middle school, where students can participate in eSports in the CATS Club afterschool program and the CATS Camp summer program.

"The middle school gets quite a few kids in the afterschool program, but we lose some to other sports and activities," Boyd said. "We are considering taking a middle school team and competing through the eSports Ohio league at that level."

This weekend, Cambridge will be participating in pool play. Coverage can be found at https://www.start.gg/tournament/esports-ohio-2023-spring-championship/event/rocket-league-championship/matches. Once they advance through pool play, the Bobcats will be placed on a bracket and play for the championship.

Submitted by John Charlton with Cambridge City Schools