New e-sports team gives two Bend siblings a place to compete and make friends

(Update: adding video, comments from e-sports players, coach)

Coach: 'First and foremost, it’s an opportunity for students to connect with one another'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Two Bend students -- who happen to be siblings -- are top players on their e-sports team.

Angelina Cardona-Hurd and her brother, Carlos, attend Oregon Charter Academy, a fully online school.

They both compete on the relatively new e-sports team.

However, they enjoy the club for more than just the competition.

“E-sports is a really cool thing and I’m glad I get to be a part of it," Angelina said.

Angelina heard about the club through her game design class, while Carlos was looking for something to do.

“Try and find an interesting club to do, and saw e-sports and was like, ‘I play games -- this looks like it could be fun!’" he recalled. "So I decided it would be a great experience.”

The club started last spring, with just six members.

This year, the club has close to 25 members, competing on two Rocket League teams, two League of Legends teams and one Overwatch team.

Coach Gabriel Elliot says being an online school, it’s hard to have traditional sports teams like soccer or baseball.

“In retrospect, it's kind of a no-brainer we would offer an e-sports team,” Elliot said.

The League of Legends teams, which Angelina and Carlos both play on, made the playoffs for the first time.

“Its cool because of the fact that it's all the teams in the US Mountain Region,” Angelina said. “Its a really cool opportunity to do, and I’m excited about it.”

Carlos appreciates the competition.

“It's a very humbling experience to prove that I have the skills to compete with the best of the best in our region,” Carlos said. 

While competing and winning is great, Coach Elliot said having a place for online students to connect, work together and make friends is the biggest selling point.

“First and foremost, it’s an opportunity for students to connect with one another,” Elliot said. 

For Angelina, it’s helped her come out of her shell.

 “I’ve made a lot of friends that I wouldn’t have made before and there's just a lot of opportunities now,” she said. “I’m going on more field trips after this. It just made me more social, like I'm going to go to the Oregon Prom, and it's going to be great, just because there's so much specialization and community in it. Its been really fun.”

Coach Elliot said they hope the club will work in tandem with the game design and coding classes, and eventually they want to help students find e-sports scholarships.

Angelina, Carlos and their League of Legends team compete in their first-ever playoff on Monday.