The 2023-2024 season championships descend into Orlando to crown the best youth esports teams throughout North America

The XP League National Championships took place from June 28-30 at Full Sail University. XP League is one of the largest youth gaming organizations in North America. Over 250 esports athletes traveled to Orlando to round out their 2023-2024 season with Grand Finals matches in Valorant, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, Fortnite, and Apex Legends.

XP League combines the ideals of traditional sports with video games, resulting in a youth esports league that gives kids a chance to play with other youth gamers of all ages, genders, and sizes. Weekly tournaments throughout the year lead the best teams to Orlando to crown the best teams in North America.

This was the 4^th year that Full Sail hosted the swarm of youth esports athletes, where kids ranging in age from 8-17 years old had the chance to live out their professional esports dreams. The students and staff at Full Sail University pull out all the stops to give them an experience to remember.

Full Sail gives the XP League athletes and coaches a full-scale production, complete with streaming, play by play announcing, professional video and audio production, and they get the chance to play inside of the Orlando Health Fortress as well as Full Sail Live. As with all productions, the event gives students a chance to run a live esports event from start to finish.

Just like professional events, spectators and parents are able to watch the gameplay up-close and personal around the tables of PCs set up around the two venues. The teams’ coaches are on hand for each tournament to make sure that the players are executing to the best of their abilities. And to make the whole event even more special, each team is provided with their own specialized jerseys with their team logos and the player’s in-game names.

In the team-based games of Overwatch 2, Rocket League, and Valorant, teams are introduced in style, with player announcements to accompany the smoke and hype for the teams entering the Fortress.

Teams include both male and female athletes, and instead of splitting the teams into their age brackets, players of all ages can be found playing together. Bringing together boys and girls of all ages shows that age and gender have no boundaries in esports.

The competition was fierce all weekend long. Only one team from each game can come out on top, which lends itself to a range of emotions from the excitement of winning in that final shot as well as the painful agony of defeat.

But the main theme in all of the games was sportsmanship. Players and coaches could be found congratulating each other throughout Championship Sunday, with kids of all ages coming together to form new friendships that will carry through their days of playing video games.

XP League National Championship 2024 Winners:

• Fortnite – Austin Hydra Platinum
• Apex Legends – Augusta Gnome Dartz
• Valorant – Madison-Acworth Dark Zero
• Rocket League – Macomb Heroes A
• Overwatch 2 – Franklin Phoenix

Rocket League winners Macomb Heroes A (Top L) and Apex Legends winners Augusta Gnome Dartz (Bottom)

To learn more about XP League, visit xpleague.com. Visit the photo gallery here.