The Jones Varsity “Valorant” Esports team won their match against Whitney Young Magnet High School on Wednesday, Mar. 16 by a match score of 2-1 (13-6, 9-13, 13-4), brining their overall record to 4-0.

 “Valorant” is a shooter game with attackers and defenders switching roles after every 12 rounds. Matches are played to the best of three, and each match is won by the first team to come victorious in 13 rounds.

The competition Jones found in the Dolphins was stiff, as Mackinnley Kuberski ‘22 described.

“Last year, Whitney Young was the runner up for the playoff tournament, so winning this match gives us some great confidence that we are one of the best teams in the tournament,” said Kuberski. “We weren’t sure how we would fare against them, but we just played our game to the best of our ability. We lost an unfortunate map 2, but we dominated in map 3.”

Jones got an early lead and held it for the rest of the first match, winning 13-6. Taehawk Oliver Oh ‘25 cited effective practice and unusual agent choices by the Dolphins on the Icebox map.

“[Our success] was mostly the amount of practice we put into the first map, [which] is probably our most scrimmed map by far,” said Oh. “Also, the Whitney Young team composition was slightly off meta, as they were running lots of agents that are not normally seen on Icebox. They ran a killjoy, which was surprising.”

After falling behind Whitney Young in a bad 1-6 score to start, Jones staged a comeback to keep within range before ultimately falling 9-13 in the first map lost by the Eagles all season. A previous scrimmage was held on the Ascent map, the map of the second match in the game series, with the coach of the Whitney Young team. Jake Weinstein ‘23 claims it was a possible disadvantage in that match.

“It’s possible that they knew some of our [strategies] from that [scrimmage], but I feel like that is mostly coping,” said Weinstein. “I feel like we just didn’t play as well on that map.”

Kuberski also stated that the coach could have picked up on Ascent map strategies to gain an understanding of Jones’ play.

“We’re not sure if [the coach] based their Ascent strategies around ours from his knowledge from the [scrimmage],” said Kuberski. “But based on how hard they countered us it’s very possible.”

In front of roughly 100 in attendance on the Twitch stream, Jones stormed back to earn a third match 13-4 victory over the Dolphins to claim the series. Kuberski acknowledged the great bounce back and retaking of momentum.

“To be honest, on Haven it just seemed like [Whitney was] worn out. Playing for that long takes a toll on your mental [stamina], and going down [the first] 4 rounds right after convincingly winning a map will have a negative effect on it,” said Kuberski. “Our positioning on Haven wasn’t all that insane, we just kept our comms clear and won almost all of our impactful gunfights.”

Expectations were raised due to excitement for the matchup, but didn’t affect the team’s performance overall, as Oh claimed.

“Beforehand, we expected a relatively easy matchup but got slightly wary of their coach, yet still had a healthy amount of confidence going into it,” said Oh. “Our team honestly does not really suffer much from external pressure, so expectations of Jones from viewers and such did not affect us greatly. However, we were very excited to have our game streamed.”

Oh also added that Whitney relying on individual battles for success compared to Jones’ team effort led to their downfall.

“I do think they did rely on individual fights too heavily especially knowing that our team has a more coordinated playstyle,” said Oh. “That being said, I feel that it was justified, as relying on individual battles can be easier to practice and work against teams of a similar playstyle.”

In the third match, Oh put up a staggering 26 kills with only 6 deaths, leading the charge for the team’s series winning third map victory. Shoutouts include the whole team, but Oh stood out as a clear MVP, said Weinstein.

“We all did our part, but shout out to Oliver for an above and beyond performance,” said Weinstein.

Oh applauded the entire team for effort despite heroics.

“I feel that the whole team was crucial to our victory,” said Oh. “On a more specific level, I’d like to shout out Danby [the team’s in game leader] for effectively creating and implementing team strategies that fit our individual playstyles, Kuberski for keeping the mentality of the team strong and positive, Weinstein for setting up everyone else for success with amazing support, and Riley “Stunna” Stunnard, for creating space and laying the foundations for the rest of the team to play comfortably.”