Lawton esports teams to compete in State Playoffs

Lawton Public Schools Esports teams from Central Middle School, MacArthur Middle School, and Eisenhower Middle School will compete in Oklahoma Scholastic Esports’ Spring 2024 State Playoffs.

The playoffs will all be played virtually Saturday and the grand finals of each bracket will be played in-person April 6 at the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Esports Arena in Weatherford.

CMS Cougars lead the middle schools in playoff appearances this spring, competing for the state championships in five titles. In “Rocket League” 2v2, Brayden Dunlap and Marius Russel of CMS Team 1, and Logan Miesner and Otto Taylor of CMS Team 2 will compete in the Division B Top 12 bracket. In “Street Fighter 6,” Romirro Penaflor, Joseph Carlson-Mueller, Isaac Reed and Douglas Rogers qualified for the Division B Top 10 bracket.Timothy Causby, Jordan Pesco, Joseph Carlson-Mueller, Phillip Winfrey, Daniel Wilk Jr. and Brayden Dunlap of the CMS “Valorant” Team will compete in the All-Middle School Top 6 bracket. CMS will bring two “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” Crews teams for the Division B Top 12 bracket: Roman Asencio, Tavion Henning and Romirro Penaflor of CMS Team 1, and Joseph Garcia, Zoe Maciejewski, Ella Markham and Grayson Reynolds of CMS Team 2.

The CMS Cougar’s final title is “Fortnite,” with three 4v4 teams competing in the All-Middle School Top 25 battle royale match: Trace Castillo, Adileen Leonard-Waitman, Kaivon Chalepah and Izaya Duerksen of CMS Team 1; Adrian Dominguez, Joshua Blake, Joseph Henson Jr. and Ian Alejandro Davilaof CMS Team 2; and Logan Miesner, Kian Vaisagote, Todd Spencer and Jovani Cruz Forty of CMS Team 3.

The MacArthur Scots will compete in two titles for playoffs. Competing in “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’’ Crews Division B are Noah Romero, Alex Zavala and Jacorion Converson of MMS Team A; Ben Fabrega, Derek Dollarhite and Isaiah Mackel of MMS Team B; and Nyssa Wike, Jullian Le and De’vion Simpson of MMS Team C. MMS will also have four “Street Fighter 6” Division B challengers competing: Noah Romero, Grace Brown, Sylvester Polnitz and Alex Zavala.

EMS Vikings will compete in playoffs for three titles this semester. The EMS “Halo Infinite” team, consisting of Joseph Hileman, Blake Penman Rivas, Nakeel Tutdeal and Tristan Sadler, will compete in the All-Middle School Top 8 bracket. In “Rocket League” 2v2 Division B, Elijah Samuels and Jacob Johnson of EMS Team 1 and David Monroe IV and Ethan Brejcha of EMS Team 2 will go for the state title.

Two Viking teams will battle in “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” Crews playoffs: Destyn Nieves, Collin Johnson, Kaleb Anderson and Jessa Stringham of EMS Team 1 and Tate Browder, Cal Knight, Abbie Hester, and Wesley Driver of EMS Team 2.

In addition to the playoff matches, seven LPS middle school “Mario Kart 8” 2v2 teams have already qualified for the Upper Division Top 16 State Championship. The following students will race for the state title on April 6: Joseph Garcia and Aydin Carroll of CMS Team 1, Collin Hetu and Alexander Obenauf of CMS Team 2, Kytzia Viruet and Grayson Reynolds of CMS Team 3, Rozalynn Murley and Samuel Overstreet of MMS Team 1, Michael Burgess and Parker Bryson of MMS Team 2, Derek Dollarhite and Nyssa Wike of MMS Team 3, and Ashlyn Vanisko and Amare Santos Campbell of EMS Team 2.