By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – It was a banner day for local esports programs as they took the stage at Huntingdon College’s auditorium to compete against other top gamers in the state, and the Thompson Warriors and Pelham Panthers took home top honors.

Pelham won its first esports state title in program history when Xavier Merchant won the Madden NFL 25 championship and Thompson took home its sixth title across multiple games thanks to its Super Smash Bros. Ultimate team The Admirals’ win on Tuesday, April 29.

Merchant took the stage to represent Pelham against Bob Jones’ Corey Robinson, the defending state champion. The two battled it out in a best-of-three series in the latest edition of Madden NFL to decide a spring 2025 champion.

Merchant chose to play as the Baltimore Ravens while Robinson selected the Buffalo Bills, and Merchant took a 20-10 victory in game one to take a 1-0 series lead.

After that, the two engaged in an even tighter second game of the series, and in the end, Merchant won 27-24 to sweep the series and earn the state title.

Merchant is coached by Spencer Stone, who was formerly Thompson’s esports coach before he moved to Pelham to help the school win its first esports title.

His former program proved to be just fine as it secured the championship in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Coach Cole Pruitt guided his team of Gavin Martin, Luke Shields and captain Hayes Paganelli against rival Hoover in the finals.

Each player competed in a best-of-three game of three stocks with a seven-minute time limit to decide the winner of each set. The first team to win three sets took the championship in a best-of-five series.

The first game saw Martin go against Hoover’s Parker Sims, with Martin selecting Fox and Sims choosing Kazuya. Martin won the first game at Pokemon Stadium 2 to take the 1-0 set lead before closing out the set with a victory on Kalos Pokemon League.

Shields then faced off against Rehan Jiwani in the second set. Shields used Steve to defeat Sephiroth on Small Battlefield in game one before earning the win on regular Battlefield for the second game to sweep the series and take a 2-0 match lead.

Paganelli stepped up for the third set with a chance to close out the match against Chase Gaston. With Paganelli choosing Samus and Gaston using Bayonetta, the Warriors captain won game one at Town & City before Hoover won game two at Battlefield.

Gaston took the game three tiebreaker for the Bucs on Kalos Pokemon League to extend the match to a fourth set.

Shields and Jiwani rematched in the fourth set with the same characters as the second set on Small Battlefield. Just like the second set, Shields secured wins in both game one and two to sweep the fourth set and take the state title with a 3-1 series win.

Calera also took the stage for the first time in Rocket League but matched up with the biggest dynasty in Alabama high school esports–BJHS Fusion from Bob Jones High School.

With coach Colin Miller’s Blue team of Blake Williamson, Christian Ritchey and Brayden Myers taking the stage, they lost the first game of the best-of-seven series 3-1 before bouncing back with a 2-0 win in game two to tie the series.

Bob Jones retook the series lead with a 2-0 win in game three and went up 3-1 in the series with a 4-3 victory in game four.

With their backs against the wall, Calera surged back with a 5-0 win in game five, but the Patriots closed out their 11th-straight Rocket League state title with a 7-1 victory in game six.

The other state champions in the spring 2025 edition of the championship were Auburn High School in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Columbia High School in NBA 2K25 and Splatoon 3.

The esports state championships started in 2019 and have been held twice a year in the fall and spring every year except for spring 2020.

Region 7 Education Service Center in Kilgore hosted the R7 eSports Spring Cup this week, a two-day eSports tournament designed to bring over 100 students from across 13 districts within Region 7 together for an epic display of gaming talent and teamwork.

This competitive event gave students a unique opportunity to join forces, demonstrate their skills, and engage in friendly competition within a dynamic, high-energy atmosphere.

The high school level competition was held on Tuesday, with the middle school competition set for the following day.

ESC Digital Learning Director Liz Walker said students from about a dozen districts attended the high school competition and more would arrive soon for the middle school competition.

“There will be about 200 kids altogether,” Walker said, as the sound of digital avatars landing knockout blows and leaping over precipices played from overhead speakers and neon-bright battles waged on four projector screens in the Cedar Room at the ESC. Approximately 80 high-schoolers had assembled Wednesday morning at the beginning of the tournament, picking up their controllers to duke it out in Super Smash Bros.

Just a few months ago, in December 2024, Walker commented on the “learning curve” of hosting their first-ever eSports tournament for kids in the Region 7 service center, which includes 95 school districts, 7 charter schools, and 13,305 square miles in 17 East Texas counties.

ESC seems to be quickly climbing that learning curve, as the second installment in their new eSports tournament venture drew even more student participants and school districts than the first.

The increasing popularity of eSports, organized bracket-style competitions held between players vying for a win in video games, is not just a local trend. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global esports market size was valued at USD 560.6 million in 2024. The market is projected to grow from USD 649.4 million in 2025.

Archbold, Ohio – Northwest State Community College is bringing back Game Con, “the premier pop culture convention,” on Saturday, June 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The convention is run by Northwest State and NSCC Thunder, the college’s official Esports team. The event is free to attend, and all ages are welcome.

Game Con will feature many events and competitions, some returning and some new. They include a 100-player Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tournament with a $600 prize pool, a Cosplay Contest with a $500 prize pool, a Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game Tournament with a Yu-Gi-Oh related prizes, and other open activities available to all attendees.

PLENTY OF ACTIVITIES AVAILABLE…

Some of the open activities scheduled for Game Con include:

• Artists, Vendors, and Authors
• Various Panels
• Dungeons & Dragons Character Creation Workshop
• Open Console Play with Nintendo Switches, PlayStations, and Many More Consoles
• Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences
• Food Trucks, Open LEGO Build Stations, and More!

THANKS TO THE EVENT SPONSORS…

Event sponsors currently include Worthington Industries, Sauder Manufacturing, Bryan GameStop, and N.W.O. Gamers.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION…

Additional information, including pre-registration links, photos, etc., are available at NorthwestState.edu/GameCon. Follow NSCC Thunder on social media at Instagram.com/NSCCThunder,Twitter.com/NSCCThunder,and  Facebook.com/NSCCThunder for more information about vendors, events, and other Game Con news.

###Northwest State Community College is an accredited two-year, state-assisted institution of higher education that has served northwest Ohio since 1969. Northwest State is committed to providing a quality, affordable education with personal attention and small class sizes.  The College offers associate degrees with numerous transfer options, short-term certificate programs, and workforce training programs designed to meet the needs of local businesses and industries. For more information, visit NorthwestState.edu or call 419.267.5511.

Some of the biggest names in chess are coming to Arlington this fall.

On October 4, Esports Stadium Arlington will host Checkmate: USA vs. India, a first-of-its-kind chess event boasting world-class talent and star power, including the two top players from each country and four of the top five players in the world.

Headlining the event is a match between five-time U.S. Champion and widely popular chess streamer American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and the reigning world chess champion Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju. The other premier matchup is reigning four-time United States Chess Champion American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana vs. Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi.

The event will also pit two of the largest Chess streamers in the world against each other with American international master Levy Rozman vs. Indian international master Saghar Shah. Combined the two have more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube Reigning.

There will also be matchups between some of the best women’s and youth players. Reigning 3-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion grandmaster Carissa Yip will take on Indian grandmaster Divya Deshmukh in a match between two of the country’s best female players.

Lastly, the event will highlight a match between two under-15 prodigies, American FIDE master Tanitoluwa Adewumi and international master Ethan Vaz.

“This is the kind of event that elevates chess to the next level,” Nakamura said in a press release. “India has become one of the most exciting forces in global chess, and I’m thrilled to take them on in front of a live crowd here in the U.S. We want to show the world that America is home to some of the best players in the game — and that chess can be as thrilling and competitive as any major sport.”

By playing these matches in Arlington, Checkmate: USA vs. India will have up to 2,500 fans in the arena to go along with a potentially massive online audience.

Tickets are available at www.checkmateusaindia.com.

The rising popularity of online chess

More people are playing online chess than ever before.

At the start of 2025, Chess.com had reached 200 million users and has its sights set on reaching 250 million before 2026.

At the beginning of 2023, so many people were joining Chess.com that the website’s servers were having trouble keeping up. On Dec. 31, 2022, Chess.com reported having seven million active members in a single day. By January 20, it had 10 million.

The surge in users was the third “chess boom” since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main causes of these booms have usually been easy to pinpoint. In 2020 it began with PogChamps, an online chess tournament featuring notable internet personalities who were more or less new to the game. By the time the first PogChamps tournament ended, chess views on Twitch had grown 188.84%, according to The Esports Observer’s Trent Murray.

By the end of 2020 and into the early part of 2021, Netflix’s hit show The Queen’s Gambit brought the game into the homes of people who were, slightly less online than your typical Twitch viewer.

This time around it is a little more unclear. There was a photo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess — which featured an actual position reached in a game between two of the biggest names in chess: Grand Masters Magnus Carlsen and Nakamura.

There have also been several Dallas-area professional athletes who’ve mentioned their love of the game, like Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and former Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic.

Find more sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.