Se Computer screens with colourful earphones stand on spacious desks i in Wang Yu Cyber Cafe in Richmond where students practise eSports. sasHa ZEIDLER PHOTO Legendary geeks to meet Langara and UBC to co-host high school eSports tourney By SASHA ZEIDLER igh school students across the Lower Mainland will get a first hand shot at competitive eSports in March and April thanks to Langara College and UBC. For the first time, the Langara eSports Association has joined the UBC eSports Association to host the 2017 Greater Vancouver High School League eSports tournament. Competitors at the event will team against each other in the League of Legends multiplayer online game to destroy their opposing group’s home base. The preliminaries of the tournament will be played from home or school un- til the top eight teams are established. ‘The semi-finals and finals will be live at WangYu Cyber Cafe in Richmond. “My end goal is to grow the eS- ports community to show we want to support [high sclpool students],” said Jonathan Wong, co-founder of “My end goal is to Isabelle D. Tupas, the collegiate co- ordinator and manager of LEA thinks it is a great opportunity to see “high school kids participate in something that really isn’t shown in high schools.” The prize for the top three teams will be a percentage) of the money col- lected by the admission fee of Langara eSports. $5 per student. Nine high grow the eSports UBC will also schools will * ” give away tickets make up 20 community. to students to teams, each hav- — JONATHAN WONG, CO-FOUNDER, LANGARA watch the spring ing five to seven ESPORTS finals of the players, who will North Ameri- compete in the popular video game League of Leg- ends. can League of Legends Championship Series at the Pacific Coliseum on April 22-23. “Most people in high school are not able to throw money to go to events like [NALCS], so it’s going to be pretty cool,” said Benton Chan, UBC eSports Association high school program man- ager. While competition is part of eSports, the community the group provides is more important for many of the students in the event. “Not only are you playing a game you like with friends, but you're shar- ing moments with them,” said Victor Yu, a student at Richmond Secondary School, one of the schools participating in the high school tournament. ‘The official dates for the live final will be announced before the high school spring break begins. Rugby team aims to lift it si are a , s ~“ TeamBC's Andrew Davis whirls with the ball in a game of give and go during practice. i/CHELE PAULSE PHOTO B.C. team looking to learn from elite competitors in upcoming match By SHOJI WHITTIER eam BC is gearing up for the international Vancouver In- vitational Wheelchair Rugby ‘Tournament in March. The players will compete with eight teams from Canada, the U.S. and Japan and the event will help them improve. Head coach Adam Frost has been with the team for 18 years and said the players are prepared for the competi- tion. “I think we will be ready for the tournament in March,” Frost. said. “We're going to be playing against S game some of the best players in the world.” Peter Isherwood has been with the team for four years and isn’t sure how the group will place this year, but he isn’t worried. “There’s going to be a lot of strong teams, and a lot of strong players,” Ish- erwood said. Frost believes the team will do their best. “Ultimately we're going to have to get what we can out of it, which really is preparing for our national champi- onships in May,” Frost said. Byron Green, who has played with Team BC for 11 years looks forward to competing with national and interna- tional teams. “It’s going to be a good opportunity for some of our newer players to de- velop and get some game time in some very competitive games,” Green said. Team BC has hosted the event that is popular with wheelchair athletes and fans for 17 years. It will be held at the Richmond Olympic Oval this year. Proving they are crucial to team Players aim to show their merit in upcoming provincials as coach looks to recruit By CHRISTOPHER THOROSKI ressure for any team is high dur- P= the postseason, but for the Langara Falcons women’s bas- ketball team, each player is feeling her own extra stress ahead of the Pacwest Provincials on March 4. The team hasn’t performed well since 2009 when they won bronze at the provincials. Players will have to do well in the upcoming competition to stay on the team. Nicola Erricson, a freshmen and guard, says she feels confident but be- lieves she has to prove herself before next year’s tryouts. “Making the team will be more chal- lenging than it was this year . . . espe- cially fighting for playing time, because everybody will be improving during the off-season,” Erricson said. “T definitely would like to work on my left hand ball handling and hav- ing a more con- sistent three-point shot," she added. Hauna Wong, a guard and fresh- men, is one of 10 players who’s Hauna Wong playing basket- FALCONS WOMEN'S BASKETBALL GUARD ball at the college level for the first time in her athletic career. “We are a rookie team. . . but now that we played a full season we are coming into provincials strong,” Wong said. For Wong and her teammates, it’s been a journey since the beginning of the season. The team doesn’t necessarily have the experience, but they’ve worked hard and feel prepared going into the provincials. Winston Brown, the Falcons head coach, believes the team can succeed if it is determined and works hard as a group. Winning isn’t the only goal Brown has in mind for the team. Once the off-season arrives, Brown will be searching to fill spots on the 2017-18 roster. “Most coaches at this time are des- perately looking to recruit a ton of play- ers, whereas I’m only looking to recruit afew players because we have so many coming back,” Brown said. “We've been fortunate enough to have a couple of local players coming out of high school who have already committed," he added. With a record of 6-12, the Falcons clinched the sixth playoff seed and will compete this weekend, at Quest Uni- versity in Squamish. & Ranked: 6th Ranked: 2nd Ranked: 3rd Ranked: 5th Ranked: 4th