Congratulations to iUniversity Prep for finishing as the high school champions and middle school runner-up in the Vanta National Esports Mario Kart League, with finals held December 11.
“We are so proud of all of our esports teams that competed this year,” iUP esports head coach and science teacher Seth Duban stated. “They competed for months to get to this point and along the way formed valuable friendships, all while developing teamwork, communication, strategic thinking and leadership skills.”
The high school team members are senior captain Eli Andrews and sophomore teammates Hailie Ratkic, Marty Barrett and Phoebe Cunliffe. Alternates on the team were freshmen Emilie Adams and Devesh Kelley. Kaitlyn Travis coaches the high school and middle school Mario Kart teams.
On the middle school team are student eighth graders Emilio Bagdon, Gianna Miller and Denzel Ramirez as well as sixth grader Cooper Fletcher. The team substitute is seventh grader Aurora Fernandez.
Vanta is a virtual esports platform used by many schools across Texas and the nationals. The national league provides virtual competition for schools located in other states as well as Texas.
In addition to the Vanta Nationals, iUP also fielded multiple teams in the Texas Esports League and for the first time in the school’s history, advanced to compete at the in-person state finals hosted by Baylor University on December 14 and 15. The two teams that qualified to compete at the in-person event were the school’s Super Smash Bros and Overwatch 2 teams, which are some of the most popular sports esports events in the world. There, iUP’s two teams made it all the way to the semifinals.
For a lot of the iUP students who were in the Texas league, competing at the Baylor event was the first time they had met in-person since the school’s students live across the state.
In the end, Duban says there was another reason this year’s competition was important to the campus.
“This was a great season for us,” Duban added. “Beyond winning, for an online school like iUP, it was about the connections that we built among our students, our staff and families with everyone cheering on. It was another way of building connections and engaging everyone in the excitement.”