My name is Brodie RYAN (Year 11) and for much of 2018 I have been a member of an Esports Online Gaming team in Australia called Kanga Esports. The team is made up of 5 players and a coach, and I play in a game called Paladins.  Paladins provides various characters, called Champions, for the players to choose during their games. Each of these Champions falls into one of the following categories: Front Line, Damage, Support, and Flank. Being a team-based shooter, players must rely on strategy, character knowledge, coordination, and teamwork in order to attain victory against their opponents.  In my team I play a Tank role and have leadership responsibilities to make and call plays like a half back in Football.  

This year my team in Kanga Esports has excelled in the Australia and Asia region where we competed and won, without losing a game.  Notwithstanding our team winnings of $3500 we were invited to attend the Paladins HRX Qualifiers 2018 played in the first week of November in Atlanta Georgia USA. This trip is all expenses paid where the gaming company of HRX flew my team to the USA and gave us accommodation and food.  We first headed off to Houston Texas where we boot camped by playing over 100 prep games against teams in North America.  We then flew to the Paladins HRX Qualifier event in Atlanta Georgia, prepared and ready to go.  Out of the 15 invited teams from all around the world including Russia, Brazil, England – only 4 would move on.  My team ended playing 6 games and winning 5, losing to a professional team FNATIC.  We qualified in 3rd position and earned the opportunity to then be invited to the Paladins World Championship at DreamHack in Atlanta on 16th November.  DreamHack is a large esports and gaming convention run in Atlanta and attended by tens of thousands of people over 3 days.

At the World Championship, my team, Kanga Esports came up against ENVY – a professional North American team. Almost all the top teams were professionals where individual players’ salaries are in the range upwards anywhere from $20K - $50K. Unfortunately, we were beaten, with ENVY going on to win 2 more games to win the competition where they took home $135,000.  My team, Kanga Esports took home $7000 for our 6th placement in the world.   At this event I was very happy with my performance and I had several “shout outs” by the commentators who were casting our game.  At this event I was the youngest in the competition with the average age being 23.   

After the game my team mate and I entered an Open Qualifier for a new game being displayed at the event, Realm Royale.  The game plays similarly to other games in the Battle Royale genre, in which players must traverse a shrinking safe area, collect equipment such as weapons to fight and eliminate opponents, and aim to be the last remaining team.  My teammate and I qualified for the final, which was played with a points system over 5 games.  Taking out opponents gets you points as well as staying alive the longest in the game.  By the 5^th and final game my team mate and I had established such a lead that it was impossible for any other team to beat us.  We ended up winning the competition, being interviewed on the large stage and were successful in taking home $30,000 of the total $34,000 prize pool.

The event and tournament were great.  I got to meet and make friends with many different people from all over the world, who all speak different languages.  All of my games had professional commentators narrating the game and they were also streamed on the internet and had upwards to 35,000 people watching at any one time.  It was great to have the support of Our Lady of the Southern Cross College to assist with the school schedule while I competed in this once in a lifetime opportunity.