Elite 8 ROCKS GHS
Ava Hillard faces off against Sebastian Ensign in the semi-final match. Hillard defeated Ensign and would move on to win the championship game. “I didn’t expect to win so when I came out on top I was extremely surprised,” said Hillard.
To brighten up GHS and bring in something new during the cold winter months, Mrs. Murphy and faculty came up with a fun new annual competition, a rock paper scissors tournament. “It was a perfect competition to put on because everyone knows how to play, it’s a game of luck, something we knew everyone would enjoy. We were hoping to see a wide variety of students find success and get involved in the tournament.” said Mrs. McIntyre.
This tournament got started on January 18th where everyone competed in their homeroom until there was one winner for each grade. The following day, the winners advanced to the gym over a live stream where they competed against other finalists in their grade until there was a final eight, two from each grade. The elite eight got the next month to prepare and master their skills before competing in the championship in front of all their classmates.
The championship started out with walk outs and introductions and then they got straight into the competition. Freshman’s Sebastian Ensign and Braden Kevern got the competition started with a tough match, but Sebastian ended up pulling off the victory. The following three grades then played each other. The match ups were Ava Hillard and Charlie Duncan where Ava won, Natalie Palomino and Sam Eaton where Natalie won, and finally Sami Deininger and Tony McDermott where Tony won.
When asking Sam Eaton about his nerves going into the competition he said, “I was a little nervous but I knew after all my hard work and grind I was prepared and quite confident in myself”.
Natalie though ended up with new strategies and techniques that threw off Sam’s game to win her way through.
Then came the semi finals which required a double elimination to get out. Sebastian 25’ competed against the undefeated Ava 24’ where Ava kept her streak going and pulled off another win.
Next Natalie played against a fan favorite Tony where Natalie came out on top.
Tony then got his chance at redemption in the losers bracket against Sebastian where he in a tight game won and got himself back in.
At this moment Tony said, “I felt super relieved and confident after getting another chance to take home the trophy. I was not nervous for my next game because I knew playing Natalie again I could beat her”.
Tony ended up doing just that and advanced to the finals against Hillard 24’. The winner of this game got a sweatshirt, bragging rights, and to take home the trophy to their homeroom for the next year, so a lot was on the line.
Everyone was cheering on their favorite competitor for the much anticipated finale. The two players played best out of three for each game, and played three games. After a close three games, Ava Hillard came away with the victory. The crowd went wild as Ava was honored the 2022 Rock Paper Scissors Champion trophy to be taken back to Mr. Knights homeroom.
