A new electronic sport is taking off across Canada, and in Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Esports Association (SEA) is hoping to one day position the province as a leader in the sport.
The league’s inaugural tournament took place on Canada Day and Team Saskatchewan – including a player from Moose Jaw – met at The Spot in Regina’s Southland Mall to compete virtually.
“Rocket League is an Esport, which is a competitive video game,” explained Shaye Ruecker, president of the SEA. “It’s three players versus three players… and you either do best of three or best of seven over a series to see who wins that series.”
Rocket League is one of the fastest-growing video games in Esports, and the Esports Association describes the fast-paced game as “soccer with cars.”
To promote the league, the Government of Canada partnered with Esport Canada to host the inaugural Rocket League Invitational Tournament on July 1 with eight provinces competing for $1,000.
When Ruecker learned about the Canada Day tournament, he got to work assembling a team to represent Saskatchewan.
“I looked all over the province and tried to find some of the best Rocket League players we had,” he said.
After holding a tournament between several Moose Jaw-area schools, Ken Stokes stood out as a champion and gained Ruecker’s attention.
“I said, ‘Hey, this was a good opportunity to get a young guy to possibly go out there and show Canada what he’s made of.’”
Stokes – who goes by the screen name “Rakegami” – is an 18-year-old Moose Jaw resident and an avid gamer with around 1,800 Rocket League playing hours behind him.
“It was a great experience,” he said. “I was welcomed to play with… some really big names like JKnaps… Just being a small town guy, playing against all these big names and the opportunity (to do so) was really good.”
Stokes said players treat the game like any other sport. Professional players like JKnaps will have invested around 10,000 hours of practice – but the payoff is worth it.
“Being able to represent my province is an amazing feeling,” he added.
Team Saskatchewan included Ken (Rakegami) Stokes, Rashaad (Toast) Dangor, Quinn (Fiji_637) Brown from Saskatoon, and Ethan (Freytrain) Mitchell from Yorkton.
The first opponent Team Sask. faced was a team from the Yukon, which was handily defeated with a final score of 22-0. The victory was short-lived, however, as the team ultimately placed seventh out of eight positions.
Although Team Saskatchewan played hard, the group viewed themselves as underdogs as they faced players with far more experience, including professional players like JKnaps.
“Our competition was definitely stacked against us, (but) we (still) performed awesome,” Ruecker said, noting that the tournament’s outcome was in no part due to a lack of effort.
“Every single one of the guys… was in it 110 per cent,” he said with confidence. “They just ran with it, they took it seriously, (and)… they just wanted to make (Saskatchewan) proud – and I think they did it.”
“I’m impressed by the amount of dedication and hard work these guys are putting in. We selected the best players from across Saskatchewan,” Ruecker said. “I’m proud of this team and I think Saskatchewan should be proud of them too.”
To get involved with the Rocket League Esport, students can ask their teachers or – as Stokes did – log onto the SEA Discord server and reach out for an opportunity to play.
To learn more, visit SaskESports.gg. The SEA Discord server can be accessed at Discord.com/Invite/3qNkrR6mby.
The tournament's livestream can be viewed at Twitch.tv/Esport_Canada.
