Kaylor Regensburg and Aiden Conner are 3A State Champs in Fortnite. Photo courtesy of USD 210 Eagles Facebook.

It was a long eight hour drive from Hugoton High School to Highland Community College located in Highland, but the members of the Hugoton Esports team made it worth it as they brought home a plethora of awards, including a State Championship and runner up! Students competed in the first ever State Championship hosted by the Sunflower Showdown Esports League.

The Sunflower Showdown Esports League was started this year by the Highland Community College Esports Coach, Matt Ludwick as a model for KSHSAA to observe as they work out the details in making esports a sanctioned event. The teams started the season back in September and played once a week as they worked their way up the standings and earned a qualifying bid to the in-person State Championship.

Hugoton qualified four Fortnite teams, three Mario Kart racers, and three Super Smash Brothers players.

In Fortnite, Hugoton was heavily favored to come out on top as they held the top four seeds in the 3A bracket, and in the Grand Finals bracket which included classification. Hugoton held the first, third and fifth seeds going into the tournament. The Eagles would go on to make it an All-Hugoton finals after the Red team consisting of Enjo Moreno and Brandon Lopez defeated the 1A State Champion team from Troy.

The Crimson team consisting of Aiden Conner and Kaylor Regensburg defeated the 2A State Champion from Jackson Heights in the semifinals. Team Crimson would prove to be too much for Team Red and brought home Hugoton’s first ever Esports State Championship.

In the consolation bracket, Hugoton’s White team, consisting of the freshman duo Gage Harris and Caiden Mason, faced a huge challenge. The Eagles ran into the second overall ranked Jackson Heights team who had previously been undefeated prior to their semifinal loss to Hugoton’s Crimson team. Team White ran out to a 4-1 lead and was able to hold off the Cobra’s comeback to pull off the biggest upset of the tournament to reach the medal round. Hugoton White would end up losing to Troy earning them fourth place.

Hugoton also had a group of students who competed in the Nintendo Switch game categories of Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers.

The event held some high level competition, as there were contestants from both events that had just been awarded Regional National Championships the week before.

Jacob Payne would end up medaling in both 3A events, placing third in Mario Kart, losing to the runner up by a single point, and fourth in Super Smash Brothers.

In the Grand Finals, it was a different Hugoton player who made the most noise as Jesus Maldonado would make a run to the consolation semifinals where he faced off and lost to a competitor from Royal Valley. Sophomore Ethan Bowers and Freshman Kaiden Hatch both participated, but did not make it past the earlier rounds of the competition. The Sunflower Showdown League also held competitions in Rocket League, Valorant, and Overwatch.

The league plans to return in the Spring of 2025 with the State Championships taking place at Pratt Community College. The Hugoton Esports team will now get ready for their Winter and Spring seasons starting in January.

The Eagles are currently planning to participate in the Sunflower Showdown League again, as well as the national level in the High School Esports League which will host seven new games next semester including Brawlhalla, Street Fighter, and Geoguessr, all of which Hugoton is expected to fare extremely well in. The Eagles will also be joining a second national esports league called PlayVS in order to grant students more opportunities with three additional new games that are not provided by the SSEL or HSEL as well as access to Special Olympics Unified esports competitions.

The Hugoton Esports program currently consists of over 70 students and about 25 participating in after school competitions.