Bigfork Esports Team Levels Up

The high school basketball season may have drawn to a close last weekend, but sports enthusiasts can still catch intense action at the Bigfork High School gymnasium on Saturday. 

Some of the country’s top high school esports players will face off when members of the East Helena Vigilantes esports team make the journey to the Flathead Valley this weekend to take on Bigfork’s esports team — a small, but mighty crew consisting of Lance “King Pandaa” Peterson, Zach “Fate” Mix and Donovan “D-Man” Stutzman.

“It’s not common at all to just do a 1v1 match like you would a varsity sport,” Peterson said. “So that was kind of my motivation for this event particularly, was it being really rare, but being a great way to show a community what you’re actually doing and what esports is about.”

The teams may be going head-to-head on a basketball court, but the real competition will take place on a virtual soccer field, with each team specializing in the popular 2015 video game, Rocket League. 

The “soccer with cars” video game features players controlling rocket-powered vehicles to hit a giant ball into the opponent’s net in matches ranging from 1v1 to 4v4. It emphasizes aerial maneuvers and teamwork, with a high-skill ceiling popular in esports.

“The cool thing about Rocket League is it is always intense all the time,” Peterson said. “It’s just five minutes of being on the edge of your seat the whole time, making split second reads, and then it can all be over. 

“Having a ball going into a goal makes it really relatable to anyone that’s played sports, you know? You don’t have to know a bunch of characters or skills or whatever the other video games do. You just know, oh, that guy’s trying to put it in the goal, and that guy’s trying to stop him.”

The Montana High School Association (MHSA) executive board at an April 2024 meeting voted to bring competitive video gaming to Montana schools as a two-year pilot program. The first official esports season took place during the 2024-25 school year, with esports being classified as an “emerging activity,” meaning it isn’t fully sanctioned.

When Peterson, a senior at Bigfork, first heard esports were being considered by MHSA, he quickly began researching and found a national league organizer, PlayVS, to join for the start of his junior year. 

Peterson decided on Rocket League, also known as the “only game [he] was ever good at,” and turned to two other players who had also been training on the virtual pitch since middle school — Mix and Stutzman — to round out a 3v3 team.  

“It’s pretty crazy that we all played the game before we met each other, and we’re able to take all of that skill and all that time that we’ve spent in the game improving individually then apply it to our team to play,” Mix said.

That prior experience and combined love for the game was a recipe for early success for the three-man team, who placed fourth in the Mountain region in their first season. Over the last two years, the team has often beat esports programs from across the country that have multiple teams and a dozen or more players. 

“We are so lucky to have each other because … to have three of us as high of a level as we have is really special,” Peterson said. “It’s why we’re able to compete with these massive schools from other states. We’ve played schools with 10 times our student population and beat them handily.”

The success from the first seasons has driven Peterson, Mix and Stutzman to continue and grow the program, with Saturday’s live match against East Helena being a key step in that journey. 

The match, which will begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday, will feature two best of seven contests between Bigfork and East Helena, with a best of five series if needed for a tiebreaker. Community members can watch the match at Bigfork High School or through a livestream on Twitch, which will feature match commentary. 

As Bigfork and East Helena are top Rocket League teams in the state — with the Vigilantes having Travis “Twisty” Lomahukluh – the No. 1 player in the class of 2027 – Peterson said this weekend is a chance to showcase a high-level of play and competition for the community.

“Five of us, all three of us and two of them, are top 100 in the nation,” Peterson said. “They recently went to Idaho and won a championship against a lot of the best teams there and took a game off of the best college team in the state. 

“It’s gonna be, for Montana, a super high level of competition. I doubt it’s something the state will see for years to come, so I really hope a lot of people can show up.”

With Peterson and Stutzman being seniors, the live match is also about bringing awareness to esports and recruiting players for the future of the Bigfork program.

“After this event, once people kind of get a sight of, oh, this is actually kind of cool, maybe I could enjoy that, then hopefully we can get some recruitment going and really grow out this program,” Peterson said. “If the culture will shift to people understanding and accepting and wanting to support it, then that will lead to people wanting to represent the program.” 

Peterson and his teammates hope to shift the current narrative that esports are “just playing video games,” they said. Stutzman, who is committed to play college soccer in the fall, said his time on the esports team has helped strengthen his mental game and has offered another opportunity to do something he enjoys with his friends. 

“It’s super easy for us all to get together and sit down and do it,” Stutzman said. “It’s also a place for me to de-stress after soccer practice or after the gym or whatever. I just get to sit down and take my mind off of life in a way.”

As a highly accessible activity, esports offer a similar environment and opportunities to traditional sports — from learning to communicate with teammates to earning college scholarships — to students who may not be interested in lacing up cleats or swinging a bat.  

“One of our intentions behind starting [the team] in the first place … is that you can take something that most kids already do, and is just a thing to pass time with, but you can take that energy and redirect it into some competition and actually make something for the kids that they can have to look to,” Mix said. “Some kids, some might have disabilities, and they already play video games. A lot of kids do that to escape. This is something we can do that takes something that isn’t always the greatest thing and turn it to something that can be really good.”

And while this weekend is focused on building for the future, the founding three-man Rocket League team is still staying present, keeping their sights set on qualifying for the team’s first-ever trip to the national championship tournament at the end of the spring season. 

“To even go to a national championship, as this tiny school from Bigfork, Montana, would just be so cool; to get to represent our school on that largest stage,” Peterson said.

The Rocket League esports match between Bigfork High School and East Helena will take place at 12 p.m. on Saturday, March 21 at Bigfork High School gymnasium. Admission is $3 for students, $5 for adults and free for veterans and seniors. The match can also be livestreamed here. 

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