Winner winner Madden dinner!
A look into the NASEF Madden tournament
Players battle it out while playing as their favorite football team during the NASEF esports tournament. Junior Jair Valasquez was grateful to have this opportunity through Lake Stevens High School. “I’m a junior right now and they’ll most likely have another tournament next year, so if I can compete again, I definitely will,” Valasquez said.
North America Scholastic Esports Federation, also known as NASEF, is a nationwide Esports tournament, where you compete against other players in online video games. Junior Jair Valasquez competed in this online tournament. Jair chose to compete in this tournament as the Green Bay Packers; although, some technical difficulties arose throughout the finals. Despite this, he still managed to pull through and come out on top.
Although people might think that esports during high school are just for fun, people could actually base their career off of it.
“As of right now, I don’t plan on basing my career on video games; it’s mostly just for fun right now. I will say though, I will make content for YouTube and Twitch, and if it works out then I’ll become a content creator. If not, then I’ll keep on pursuing my dreams of being a plumber,” Valasquez said.
Before competing in Madden, Jair had competed in a Mario Kart esport with 4 other LSHS students. Although he was competing with other student’s as a team, overall they didn’t do too great, so it was amazing to see Jair shine and win the tournament in Madden. Comparing the Mario Kart tournament to the Madden tournament, Valasquez rated the Mario Kart a solid but regular 10. His rating for Madden, though, really took the cake.
“I would give this tournament a 10. It’s definitely been a fun time. I had fun playing for the school and definitely wanted to win for the school. Another reason I might say 10 is because I won the tournament, but NASEF did a really good job with this tournament, and will thank them for all they have done for me,” Valasquez said.
Winning the tournament was a great accomplishment for Valasquez. He provided a glimpse of what was going on inside his mind before competing.
“I’m gonna be completely honest with you: I didn’t expect to make it as far as I did. At first I was like, ‘I’m facing people all around America, so this is going to be extremely tough’. As soon as I started playing though, I began to feel that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” Valasquez said.
