The Esports team will compete at a state-wide tournament hosted by DreamHack May 23-24 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The team was given two “League of Legends” team slots, along with one slot for “Overwatch 2” and “Valorant.”
“We’re not really sure what type of competition we’re [going to be up against at DreamHack,] ” “League of Legends” team captain Thomas Cho said. “Since [school is ending,] I’m letting [the team] focus on their schoolwork [right now,] but when we can, I [want to] get them back into the game and get a few practices in.”
DreamHack will host a bracket-style tournament between teams from Texas and Oklahoma with the finals competing the undefeated team in each state. This will be the first time any Esports team at Hebron has attended a DreamHack competition.
“[DreamHack] only has two teams that are promised to us, but I think that the upcoming competitions shouldn’t be too hard,” varsity “League of Legends” player Brandon Ta said.“[We’re] not too sure of [PlayVS] to be honest.”
Amidst preparations for nationals, Generation Esports sold the High School Esports League (HSEL) to PlayVS, another esports organizer, in the middle of the 2025 season. This means the team will no longer be competing under the HSEL name and won’t have the opportunity to compete in the in-person national championships this year.
“At the end of the day, when an organization folds and cancels in-person events, the motivation bottoms out,” head coach Kristopher Phillips said. “It’s like canceling the Super Bowl in the middle of the NFL season. [Our kids have] been able to overcome it, but it’s hard to say what could have happened when things get canceled before the season’s over.”
Because the school purchases curriculum from Generation Esports, Phillips has said that the Esports course will have to look for a new curriculum going into the 2025-2026 school year.
“Too many adults [in Esports] continue to fail kids,” Phillips said. “HSEL doing what they did — for whatever reason they did — took away opportunities from students [in the form of] scholarship money and in-person competitions, and that is not [acceptable.] It’s never good to take away opportunities from students who have worked all year for it. It’s awful.”
Due to the cancellation, all HSEL teams have been invited to the PlayVS 2025 Online Cup, given that they qualify. A team for both “Overwatch 2” and “Valorant” have qualified so far.
“I’m super proud of them,” Phillips said. “It’s hard to bounce back and feel the same level of motivation and competitive edge. We’re lucky that TexSEF just happened because that made them hungry again. They’re ready to be in the PlayVS cup and bring it home.”
