Minnesota’s Best Young Gamers Gather for Epic Esports Finals

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- 80 teams were in St. Cloud this weekend participating in a state competition. The Minnesota Varsity League Winter State Finals in Esports were held on Friday and Saturday at St. Cloud State University. St. John's Prep and Little Falls High School both had numerous teams competing.

St. John Prep's Milo Harkins was competing in the game Valorant. He says it is a great experience to be at the tourney:

"This is great to be able to play with other people in person, you know, I've never done this before. I think a lot of people don't really get the opportunity to, so I think it's really special to be able to be here."

Little Falls' Jordan Mendez was playing in the Fortnite two versus two and says it is a little surprising to be at the finals:

"I thought I was just going to be playing the game for fun, and then eventually I got good at it, so I joined Esports, and it was pretty good overall."

Little Falls competed in six different titles overall, and St. John's Prep in five. Over 200 high school students were taking part in the state tournament.

The kids compete in games like Chess, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Marvel Rivals.

St. John's Prep had six teams, and Little Falls High School had seven teams competing in the tourney. Little Falls' Mason Poser competed in Fortnite and Marvel Rivals. He says the whole experience has been great:

"Yeah, you get to talk to a lot of people you talk to over the season, and there's a lot of games that they offer, and when you get to go down here for multiple days, it's just a lot of fun overall."

St. John Prep's Boothe Everett-Towner says he originally started playing just for fun:

"It didn't really become my actual sport until I'd say last year, my sophomore year, when I joined the Valorant Varsity for the first time, and then after that, it kind of became my goal to bring the team to the state and have a good state tournament."

Little Falls' Head Coach Nate Selby says people would be surprised how physically and mentally exhausting Esports can be because of the long tournament days. Esports continues to grow in popularity in Minnesota, with 120 schools now having programs.

St. John's Prep's team of Jackson Nikodym and Elliott Schrupp took 2^nd place in the State in Fortnite, and the Valorant team of Oliver Schrupp, Milo Harkins, Jackson Nikodym, Ray Zu, Boothe Everett-Towner, and Elliot Schrupp brought home 3^rd place.

Little Falls' Head Coach Nate Selby says, we did not do as well as we hoped, but everyone played played thier hearts out.  Below is how the Flyers finished:

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