Bobcat Stories

The Bosque esports team glittered gold after their victory at the state championship tournament, which was held at the Berna Facio Professional Development Center on April 23-25. Participants included seniors Johnathan, Maddie, Jakob, and Kyle; juniors CJ, Violet, Niko, Bella, Joaquin, Trent, Isaiah, Tas, Sam; sophomores Lola, Sully, and Ezra; freshmen Luke and Ben, and eighth graders Lucas and Mateo.

Sam, who is a sub for the Mario Kart team, described the experience of being on the team as “special, because the team is all friends, so there’s a great sense of community. There are captain roles within each game opportunity, but we mostly work together and support one another by encouraging one another to practice and hone our skills, the most important of which are communication within each team and collaboration with others.” Isaiah added, “As we practice, we develop a greater understanding of how each game works and become more proficient in using the knowledge and executing well in competitions to accumulate the points necessary to advance.”

In the opening round, Violet won in an unusual double reverse sweep, which means she lost the first two games, then won the next three to win the best of five in the game Hearthstone, a strategy-based online card game. As the tournament continued and the wins piled up, community members could watch the games live on the streaming platform Twitch. A dramatic win in Mario Kart over San Juan nudged the team to victory, unseating the reigning champions, West Las Vegas, by a one-percentage-point margin. 

The Bosque School esports team is ranked 22 nationally, and as the 3A 2026 state champions, five Bosque School teams will compete in the national elimination rounds over the next month. Playing Super Smash Bros will be Violet, Isaiah, and Jakob (captain), and sub Selah (‘28), who has been a great contributor to the team all year. Playing Mario Kart will be Lola, Niko, Isaiah, and Violet (captain); playing Streetfighter 6 will be Johnathan, Niko, Lucas, and Ezra (captain); playing Marvel Rivals will be Jakob, Niko, Trent, Joaquin, C.J., Mateo, Ben (‘29), and Tas (captain). Violet will be a solo player for Hearthstone.

We couldn’t be prouder of the Bosque esports team for their hard work throughout the season and for their thrilling achievement of becoming state champions.