Unit 5 esports is leveling up with an upgraded lab, doubling the number of students able to practice at a time.
In partnership with the national competitive gaming league Generation Esports, students from Unit 5 esports were given the opportunity to have hands-on experience building gaming computers for their team in the district’s esports computer lab at Normal Community West High School.
Equipment donated by technology companies Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Gigabyte and NVIDIA totaled more than $12,000.
The improvements come as Normal West alum Jonathan Edmonson recently defended his esports national championship in NBA 2K.
How it started
Unit 5 esports started as a small group of students from Normal West coming to play games like Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart and other Nintendo titles in the classroom of the district’s esports founder and director Jarrod Rackauskas.
Four years ago, the students won their first Super Smash Bros. tournament at Springfield High School, and esports in Unit 5 took off.
Students will be utilizing the upgraded lab for their practices for Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. crew battles, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, Valorant, Call of Duty, Pokémon Unite, Splatoon, Counter-Strike 2, NBA 2K and League of Legends.
“We have specialized coaches for each game so the kids can have a dedicated coach for their specific game, and I think that’s why we’ve been so successful because we have one coach per game per team, which helps the kids, keep them involved, make sure their grades are doing good,” Rackauskas said.
The teams for each game consist of 20-25 students who practice four to five times a week.
Rackauskas said the esports program refurbished some computers the district was going to get rid of, and it received a grant through the Illinois Education Association (IEA) to buy some equipment upgrades.
“Today we’re getting top-of-the-line machines, which is sort of fitting for a program that has been so successful, which is really important because a lot of the programs we’re playing against now, they have esports arenas with 12-24 computers, high-speed internet and we’re starting to notice that we sometimes suffer a competitive disadvantage because of hardware,” said Rackauskas.
He said multiple Unit 5 esports members have received full-ride college scholarships playing video games.
“Competitively, we want to make sure that they’re playing in the hardest league, the IHSA [Illinois High School Association] and the IHSEA [Illinois High School Esports Association] are some of the toughest leagues in the nation, we want to make sure they get good at their game and their craft,” Rackauskas said. “My job as a coach is making sure the kids are staying out of trouble, they’re keeping up on their grades, their social-emotional health is up.”
National champion
Jonathan Edmonson, a sophomore at Heartland Community College in Normal, defended his national title in NBA 2K on Dec. 1.
Edmonson was the first student to receive a full-ride scholarship for esports at Heartland.
Edmonson joined the Unit 5 esports team during his senior year at Normal West, quickly finding success in the esports realm playing NBA 2K.
Due to his interest in basketball and football, Edmonson has been playing NBA 2K since he was 10 years old.
“It’s just always been a part of my childhood, it’s something that I’ve always played with friends, my family,” Edmonson said. “I’m a big NBA fan, so getting the video game every year was just something I looked forward to.”
Edmonson, eho said he practices every day, honing in on details of the game and practicing timing of plays, first won the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAAF) title last year as a freshman.
“Winning the first one was obviously super exciting, just because I mean it’s not something you expect to be able to do, especially in your first year,” Edmonson said. “To come back and be able to defend it and be successful in defending it, it was fun. The whole season, just knowing how competitive everyone was and having that target on my back and being able to be successful, it was a good feeling.”
