Category Archives: eSports

The Hay Springs eSports team is heading to Concordia University in Seward, NE to participate in state finals. Our matches will take place beginning at 8:00 AM MT on Friday, April 28th, 2023. The team has qualified for state in all three seasons this year, Fall, Winter, and now Spring! This is the last event of the 2022-2023 eSports season, so if you would like to watch our team play, you can tune in to the live stream at: https://www.twitch.tv/CUNE_esports Go (Gamer) Hawks!

The Hay Springs Hawks eSports team traveled to York, NE to compete on Friday, February 3rd in the NSeSA Winter Season State Finals.  The team of four(Kaden Langford, Emily Nelson, Taden Tobiasson, and Tanner Tobiasson) played Mario Kart 8 against the team from Alma, NE.  Hay Springs beat Alma in the first of three “cups” 85-71, but then Alma came back in the second cup race and won with a score of 94-62.  In the last cup race, Alma really found their groove and ended up beating Hay Springs 100-56.  The final score for all three cups was Alma 265 and Hay Springs 203.

After that race, Hay Springs was up again immediately to fight for the Bronze medal against arch-rivals Wynot.  Even without a break, the Hawks put the pressure on Wynot early, handily winning the first cup with a score of 92-64.  The tension was high at the Hawk table as the individual races of the second cup took place with the Hawks scoring very well in each race.  As the final race finished, the excitement from the Team Hawks players was palpable…they had been adding up the scores in their heads and were pretty confident that they had beaten Wynot in the second cup as well.  You could have heard a pin drop as everyone waited on the final tally and the announcement…”Hay Springs 95, Wynot 61!”  The Hay Springs Hawks erupted with high fives and hugs all around…with a final cup score of 187-125, Hay Springs secured 3rd place at State!  After the short celebration, team members congratulated the Wynot players as they walked off stage.

The final placings were as follows: 1st(Gold) place – Cody-Kilgore, 2nd(Silver) place – Alma, 3rd(Bronze) place – Hay Springs, 4th place – Wynot.

Today the Hay Springs eSports Mario Kart Team 1 qualified for state finals in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, beating out Wynot, NE by a margin of 88-68. There were some very tense moments during the four races, but Kaden Langford, Emily Nelson, and the Tobiasson Two(Taden and Tanner) fought on and triumphed in the end! The Nebraska State eSports Association State Finals will be held on Friday, February 3rd in York, Nebraska at York College. Hay Springs(Division 4) matches will go from 9:00AM-12:00PM CT/8:00AM-11:00AM MT and will be streamed live at https://www.twitch.tv/nsesa so be sure to watch and cheer on our team! Thank you Mrs. Beguin for the awesome pictures!

Senior Kaden Langford has received a $5000 eSports scholarship to Hastings College in Hastings, NE.  Kaden is the third year captain of the Hay Springs eSports team and was instrumental in the creation of the team.  During the 2022 Fall season, Kaden qualified for the Nebraska Schools eSports Association State Championship and came home with a 6th place medal in the “Super Smash Brothers Ultimate” tournament.  When asked for a comment, Kaden responded “This is really, really awesome!”  Currently, Kaden and his “Mario Kart” teammates are preparing themselves for the 2022-2023 Winter Season Playoff which begin the week of January 16th.

The Hay Springs eSports club is holding try-outs/sign-ups on Monday, August 29th immediately after school at 4:20 PM in the technology office. If you are interested in competing in the Fall eSports season, please make sure you attend! The games being offered in the Fall competition are: Super Smash Brothers Ultimate(1v1, up to 5 teams) and Rocket League(3v3, up to 2 teams).

On Friday, April 29th, the “Golden Hawks” competed at the 2022 Spring NSeSA State Esports Tournament held at York College in York, NE.  Kaden Langford and Sam Hindman played their first match against Wynot, NE Team 1 at 9:00 AM CT.  The competition was fierce with Wynot managing to pull just ahead of the Hawks in 3 of the 5 games needed to win the match.  Many of the coaches and organizers of the event said that the games were some of the closest they had seen.  Kaden and Sam said they had no regrets and felt that they played extremely well.  The next match the Hawks played was to determine who the 3rd place winners would be.  As fate would have it, they played a second Wynot team(Team 2) and ended up beating them quite soundly thus securing a 3rd place win!  It is rather unfortunate the way the bracket turned out that the Hawks were unable to compete against the team who finished in 2nd place(SEM Team 1).  As our substitute player, Jett Rasmussen, said, “I think we could have come away with the 2nd place medals had we been given a chance to play them.”  In any case, we were very pleased with our performance with this being our first trip to state competitions and “there’s always next year!”

On Thursday, April 28th, the “Golden Hawks”, Hay Springs’s eSports team will be traveling to York, Nebraska to compete at the Nebraska Schools Esports Association(https://nebraskahsesports.com/) state tournament. The number 4 ranked Hay Springs team, consisting of Kaden Langford and Sam Hindman, will face off against number 1 ranked Wynot at 9:00 AM CT/8:00 AM MT on Friday, April 29th. We would like to thank those who have supported us through the season, we really appreciate all you have done for us and none of this would be possible without you!  A special thank you to the Hay Springs School Board for allowing us to use a suburban to make the trip!

Here is a link to the Schedule(times listed are in Central Time):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bTq2Bzlz5AUwGFto6f898ekPh04fI89PkhJIGqcAmd4/edit

Here is a link to the Bracket:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ffGvOnpU5BF-BOV2nRFz210YGh3h7pVA1IpdXBCs6hM/edit#gid=107750223

Our first game against Wynot(and if we win that match, the championship game) will be streamed at:
http://twitch.tv/NSeSA

If we do not win that match, the battle for 3rd place will be streamed at:
http://twitch.tv/yorkpantheresports

eSports team members Sam Hindman and Kaden Langford racked up their second win of the season last Thursday, Feb. 4th against teams from Alma Public Schools.  Once again, our boys played Super Smash Brothers Ultimate against three teams from Alma and the results speak for themselves:

Week 2 – Hay Springs vs Alma
Alma3 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0
Alma2 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0
Alma1 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0

Kaden and Sam are making a habit of not allowing a single match win to escape their eSports careers thus far!  Can they continue their winning streak?  We will find out when they face Pender Public Schools this Thursday, February 11th at 4:30 PM.  Wish these boys good luck when you see them!

On Friday, January 29th, the Hay Springs Hawks eSports team participated in their first tournament. This particular tournament involved the game Super Smash Brothers Ultimate which is played on the Nintendo Switch gaming system. Team members Sam Hindman and Kaden Langford competed against three teams from SEM Public School(Sumner, NE) all from the comfort of our own building thanks to the wonders of online gaming! Since we only have a single team of two players, we ended up playing the best 2 out of 3 matches against each of SEM’s three teams. The final outcome of the tournament was:

Week 1 – SEM vs Hay Springs
SEM3 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0
SEM2 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0
SEM1 vs HS1 – HS1 2-0

Yes, you read correctly, our dynamic duo didn’t even allow the other teams a single match win! Congratulations to both Kaden and Sam for the awesome performance and an amazing first tournament!