ASHLAND — Scottie Wade has served as the varsity captain of Ashland High’s Super Smash Brothers Premier team since he was a freshman. His love for the game started much earlier though, when he received the gift of a video game console around 2013. He began playing on his Wii U, at first with his […]
ASHLAND — Scottie Wade has served as the varsity captain of Ashland High’s Super Smash Brothers Premier team since he was a freshman.
His love for the game started much earlier though, when he received the gift of a video game console around 2013. He began playing on his Wii U, at first with his family and friends, and then online as well.
Now, during his senior year, Wade and some of those friends he’s played with for years have added a new feather to their caps.
Wade and his teammates — Atticus Zickefoose, Brendan Sponsler and Ethan Kamp — won Esports Ohio’s 2024 Fall Classic for Super Smash Brothers Premier. The win makes them state champions.
According to Aaron Coffy, the team’s coach, and Ben Spieldenner, Ashland City Schools’ esports director, it’s the first time the school has ever brought home a state championship in that particular game.
It previously brought home one other state championship in Fortnite in 2020. In the 2022 Fall Classic, Ashland’s Overwatch Premier team placed as a state runner-up.
Esports at Ashland High
Both Coffy and Spieldenner say they’ve worked with Ashland High’s esports team since it began six years ago.
According to previous reporting from Richland Source, esports has grown in popularity over the past few years. Coffy said at Ashland High, the esports team is considered a sport, and students can letter for their performances on the team.
The Esports Ohio league the school plays in has two six-week seasons: one in the fall, and another in the spring. The fall season happens online, while in the spring season, teams travel for regionals and for the state finals.
Spieldenner said the Super Smash Brothers game — the game the team won the state championship in — is one of the more popular ones in the league, making the competition stiff.
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Super Smash Brothers features several video game characters with different strengths. According to Spieldenner, players choose a character to play as. There are four players on a team, but players face off against opponents one-versus-one.Each player begins the game with three “stocks,” or “lives,” to spend. Once those three stocks are gone for the first player on a team, another teammate taps in and begins playing. They play until their three stocks are used up. The game finishes and a winner is declared when all 12 of the team’s stocks are gone. In Esports Ohio play, a team has to win a best two out of three rounds to move on in the competition.One player can have the ability to defeat multiple of the other team’s players if they maintain stocks in the game. So, having a player who excels at the game can give the team an advantage. Spieldenner and Coffy said Wade did this when the team won the championship. Wade gave credit to his teammates, who helped keep the team alive in a challenging semifinal match to take the win from behind. He also confirmed he swept the opposing team in the second round of the championship match. The team won its first two rounds in the championship match.“We were really happy, but it also felt kind of weird, because we thought there’d be a lot more back-and-forth,” Wade said. @media ( min-width: 300px ).newspack_global_ad.scaip-3min-height: 100px;
Wade and his teammates celebrated by shaving their coach’s head.Becoming betterWhile Coffy feels excited about the team’s win in the Fall Classic, he anticipates more competitive play coming up. His eyes are set on the team carrying their momentum forward and winning in the spring league as well. He said the spring play tends to be more competitive. Wade agreed. He added the team had set a goal at the beginning of the year to win the Fall Classic. Now their eyes are on the prize for the spring league. “We’ll just keep practicing and hanging out as a team so we don’t lose sight of that goal,” Wade said. He added he’s excited at the idea of winning in person at the spring league. It “doesn’t have the same connection” to achieve that in their own lab as Wade anticipates that in-person win might. Plus, it’s the final chance Wade and his teammates have to bring home that prize before they all graduate. “It’s exhilarating that we’ve accomplished that goal, but we really want to bring home back-to-back hardware,” Wade said. @media ( min-width: 300px ).newspack_global_ad.scaip-4min-height: 100px;
He said he and his teammates have made a lot of progress over their years of playing together. They’ve gotten more serious about practicing, and he said his teammates’ skills have improved. For Coffy, those types of things are important too. He said his approach to coaching is that esports is not all about competition.“I want (players) to leave here with something more than the fact (they) played esports in high school,” Coffy said.He tries to encourage teamwork and sportsmanship among his students. It’s about pushing them to be better — not just at video games, but as people.
This independent, local reporting provided by our Report for America Corps members is brought to you in part by the generous support of the Ashland County Community Foundation.
