{"id":88619,"date":"2026-01-16T15:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88619\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:47:28","slug":"eagles-esports-team-excels-at-nys-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88619\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Esports team excels at NYS championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PXL_20251213_214257618-771x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Esports competition in progress\" width=\"525\" height=\"697\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-67444 size-large\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Last month, the Bethlehem Central High School Eagles Esports team competed in the Empire State Scholastic Esports Federation (ESSEF) State Championships, held Dec. 13 at Syracuse University\u2019s state-of-the-art gaming and Esports Center.<\/p>\n<p>The championship brought hundreds of New York\u2019s top high school players to the university\u2019s new esports arena, which features specially-designed seating, large-scale displays and livestreaming.<\/p>\n<p>Two Eagles teams advanced to the tournament\u2019s playoffs: Eagles Esports Marvel Rivals and Eagles Esports Rocket League. The Marvel Rivals team earned a second-place finish statewide, while the Rocket League team placed third in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Eagles Esports Marvel Rivals \u2013 2nd Place NYS<\/p>\n<p>Peyton Gray (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nJohn Stapleton (Gr. 12)<br \/>\nWill Jensen (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nMax Yaeger (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nPhoenix Andrews (Gr. 12)<br \/>\nLuca Ruggiero (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nMatthew Foster (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nNiccolo Genovese (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nEric Zheng (Gr. 12)<\/p>\n<p>Eagles Esports Rocket League \u2013 3rd Place NYS<\/p>\n<p>Max Yaeger (Gr. 11)<br \/>\nEric Zheng (Gr. 12)<br \/>\nKai White (Gr. 9)<br \/>\nJohn Stapleton (Gr. 12)<\/p>\n<p>The teams\u2019 impressive results reflect the BC program\u2019s growth from a casual gaming club into one of New York\u2019s highly competitive esports programs. Last June, team member <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bethlehemschools.org\/bc-sophomore-wins-bronze-at-nys-esports-championship\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peyton Gray earned a bronze medal<\/a> in individual Esports play.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to these students and to team coaches Navaar Johnson and Justine Nigro on their outstanding performances!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PXL_20251213_232117191-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"students celebrating medal wins\" width=\"525\" height=\"525\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-67446 size-large\"  \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PXL_20251213_232053187-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"students displaying medals\" width=\"525\" height=\"525\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-67445 size-large\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, the Bethlehem Central High School Eagles Esports team competed in the Empire State Scholastic Esports Federation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[43998,153,155,154],"class_list":["post-88619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bchs-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}