Q&A with Bloomfield Hills esports athlete Zachary Ring
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Zachary Ring, 16,聽 is passionate about E-Sports.聽 So much so that he started an E-Sports team at Bloomfield Hills High School.
E-Sports stands for Electronic Sports and is a form of competitive video games varying from racing games, fighting games, and even sports based games like Madden.聽 An E-Sport competition starts with a home and away team being decided randomly and the home team setting up the online lobby for the games to take place. Most games follow their professional rules.
The E-Sports club came to fruition last Spring at BHHS and there are about thirty students on the team.聽 Despite the newness of the club, the team has already won two state titles!聽 I asked Zachary what the process was to form a new sports team at BHHS.聽 He replied, 鈥渄uring my freshman year at BHHS, I approached my Algebra One teacher with the idea of an E-sports Club, which snowballed into a huge project leading to the creation of the BHHS Black Hawks Varsity E-Sports Team.鈥�
Zachary also shared some of his future athletic goals and lessons he has learned from starting a new team.
What are your personal goals within your sport/athletic dreams?
Zachary Ring: I want to use my sport to create goals and relationships.聽 My athletic dream is to join a college team or possibly a semi-professional league.
What do you love about your sport?
Ring: I personally love almost everything. I love how it connects with a group of fun people all gathering around the same interest. I really like the skills it develops and so much more.
Do you have a pregame ritual you follow?
Ring: We don鈥檛 really have much of a ritual but we like to give the teams competing the day of a bunch of support.
What has being a member of a team taught you?
Ring: It鈥檚 taught me to not just focus on the progress of myself but my team as a whole.
What is the best piece of advice you received from a coach or mentor?
Ring: To not look at how you did but to look at how far you鈥檝e come.
Describe a mistake you made while competing and how you overcame it.
Ring: For E-sports I feel like I鈥檝e made a lot of minor mistakes in my play but I鈥檝e overcome them by fixing them in my next round of game and getting advice from my teammates on specifics
Lastly, Zachary would like to share that, “E-sports isn鈥檛 all about video games but instead finding relationships through similar compassions and growing yourself both mentally and socially.”
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