In 2025, the famous Superbowl had 127.7 million total viewers (NFL). The annual Game Awards held that year had 171 million viewers, a massive 34% difference between the two (Game Awards).
As time passes, it’s worth noting the popularity of gaming and the increase it had in the past couple of years. The gaming industry’s revenue hit a high of $197 billion USD, a 7.5% increase from last year. With mobile games at 50% of revenue, PC games at 23%, and Console games at 27% (Gaming World Observer).
Extracurriculars and clubs are a huge part of Mid-Pacific whether you realize it or not. From Self-Care Club to the Math Team, our school offers a wide selection of clubs/extracurriculars you can participate in. However, some clubs don’t go as noticed as others. Such is like the Esports club. Although it may be common knowledge that this club exists, it's less common that one would know much about it. Much less about the new addition, Marvel Rivals, to the club.
The club, run by Teacher Mrs. Landgraf, is located on the second floor of Weinberg. Mrs. Landgraf works with Vanta, which was recently acquired by PlayVS (TMCnet). Both are Esports coordinators.
“Vanta is just online.” Mrs. Landgraf informed. “Vanta is the one that organizes games, keeps track of scores, randomly selects opponents, and/or sets up the postseason tournaments.”
Recently Vanta added a Marvel Rivals league to their roster, allowing the esports club to have a Marvel Rivals team if enough students sign up.
Mid-Pacific has stationary computers that are large, heavy, and smooth to provide the best competitive experience for the players. “Yeah, [I enjoy the computers] They’re definitely better than my own,” Sophomore Andre Lukely said.
“They’re like, really fast, and my PCs, like, a lot slower than theirs. Sophomore Jax Shimabukuro noted. “But their wifi could probably be a bit better.”
But why Rivals? Other than, “because my friends play it,” noted by Sophomore Kirsh Amaru Kamra, what makes it a fun game?
Marvel Rivals was officially and fully released on Dec. 6th, 2024 created by the studio NetEase, known for games like FragPunk and OnceHuman. Marvel Entertainment partnered with NetEase to create a 6v6 hero shooter based on the characters from Marvel Comics.
Marvel Rivals stood out from other Marvel games because of their unique artstyle, making characters seem colorful and larger than life. Something other Marvel games like Marvel’s Avengers had failed to do.
Marvel Rivals has three main game modes that are randomly chosen when the player decides to get in a game. Convoy requires one side to push a cart to a destination, and the other to stop it. Domination has two teams colliding on a point, claiming the point would earn a victory. Convergence is a combination of the two, where one team has to claim a point and then move a cart while the opposing team has to stop them.
Even over a year after its original release, the game still manages to bring their players back with new additions to the game. Every in-game season brings new characters to play, new maps to explore, and new rewards to claim, the game keeps its relevancy.
For those who don’t know, a game season is a large update typically connected with a p reward track, such as a battle pass. Many games have picked up this concept as it helps keep players engaged and looking forward to the next season.
At the time of writing, the game has 117k players online, and had 200k when the last big update was released just on Steam (SteamDB).Steam only counts players using steam meaning those who use a different launcher or play in a different platform aren’t counted, so it’s safe to assume the game is doing pretty well.
A large commitment isn’t required either. Most team members only play the game when their friends are on. Every member plays with their friends more than by themselves.
“I just, like, play a couple hours a week with my friend,” Shimabukuro said.
However, games are normally held on Thursdays from 4-5PM with optional practice times chosen by Mrs. Landgraf every week.
The Esports Club doesn’t have just Marvel Rivals, having teams for Valorant, Rocket League, Super Smash, and more.
The club is split into multiple teams, sometimes having multiple teams per game depending on the amount of students who are willing to commit to the game. Last season Mid-Pac only had one Marvel Rivals team due to limited students who would join.
“We might, like, barely have enough people in it [The Marvel Rivals team]” Kamra noted.
At the time of writing, more players are needed for the Marvel Rivals team. Talk with any of these students, or Mrs. Landgraf just to come in and experience something new.
“There are no other really good games that are just like [Marvel] Rivals.” Lukely noted.
