A fundraiser for the Logansport High School e-sports team brought teachers and students together for an evening of video game fun in the McHale Performing Arts Center Tuesday evening.
Teachers were joined by Superintendent Michele Starkey as they competed against each other and audience members in six JackBox Games.
JackBox Games is a publisher that specializes in fun party games that are popular options for YouTube and Twitch streamers.
Among the games played were “Quiplash,” a fill in the blank game; “Guesspionage,” where the audience voted on an answer and the teachers had to decide if the audience was right or wrong; “Tee K.O,” which had the educators designing a t-shirts and the audience voting on their favorites; and “Mad Verse City,” a robot rap battle where the teachers had win the audiences approval by throwing down the best rhymes.
Audience members were able to interact with the games by downloading the Jackbox.tv app on their phones.
Teachers joining Starkey onstage included Century Career Center dean and boys varsity basketball coach Matt Lange, Joe Stetz, teacher and the voice of the Logansport Berries on WSAL radio, Chinese teacher Chunmei Guan, art teacher Bryan Hole, English teacher Beth Myers, science teacher Tucker McCord, science teacher Andrew Bever and Century Career Center Assistant Director Bob Iles.
Dave Packard, an art, media and communication teacher in the Century Career Center, hosted the event, and Lange, Stetz and other teachers often went into the audience with a microphone and asked questions.
“Do not get fired by Mrs. Starkey for this answer,” Packard jokingly warned the other contestants at one point.
Topics that came up during the games included the weirdest ingredient to put in trail mix, how many people have worn a fanny pack and would you eat a chicken nugget after watching a video about how they are made.
Answers became more absurd as the nearly three-hour session of gameplay went on.
“It was a lot of fun,” Packard said at the end of the night. “It’s a lot of fun to get everyone together. These are people we don’t get to hang out with very often. They are from different parts of the school. Maybe next time we can open it up to people from all the schools. This time it was just Logansport High School and the Century Career Center.”
Bryan Hole said the school’s e-sports team brings together a diverse number of students. Not only is the team a great social opportunity for the members, but it also helps with their academics, he said.
“It’s an important program,” he said. “I think it helps out a lot of kids who maybe wouldn’t fit in with traditional sports and other activities. But gaming is their thing.”
Last year, the Logansport E-sports team won the IHSEN Division AA state championship in “Rocket League.” “Rocket League” is a game of soccer where the players are replaced by cars. The vehicles must ram a giant ball back and forth and try to knock it into their opponent’s goal.
The e-sports team will start back up with competition in January. Those interested in watching the team’s matches may do so by downloading the Twitch app and searching for Logansportesports, or matches can be watched online at www.twitchtv/Logansportesports.
“People can look for us on there and root us on,” Packard said. “We need fans in the chat room.”
Lately, the team has been competing in “Valorant,” a free-to-play five vs. five shooter where a team must complete an objective or eliminate the opposing team’s players to win.
The Logansport High School e-sports team competes Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Matches will be announced on their Facebook and Twitter accounts (@loganesports).