The Barrington High School E-sports team won a state championship recently.

The E-sports team, which competes against other schools using video games, defeated Cranston East 3-2 in late November to capture the championship. Barrington High School coach Sam Schachter said the title was considered an “exhibition” state championship due to some technology issues that Providence Public Schools experienced this past fall season. 

“The season would play out as normal, but wouldn't count as an official season,” Schachter wrote in a message to the Barrington Times. “Instead, the same E-sports titles would be repeated in this current season, Winter 2025, where official state champion teams will be crowned.”

Schachter said his team finished the regular season with a 7-1 record — its lone regular season loss came against Ponaganset, but the Eagles avenged that defeat with a victory over the Chieftains in the playoff semifinals. 

In the state finals, Barrington powered past Cranston East.

“We won the final 3-2, though it was not very close,” Schachter wrote. “Cranston East had one very talented player who scored both of the points for his team, but our team was able to defeat the other two players fairly easily. The opposing coach actually said that our team had no weak point and all three players are very strong.”

Barrington was led by seniors Samuel Levesque, James Whitehead and Wesley Van Leer, and sophomore Leo Ellis. Levesque served as team captain. 

“All three starters played exceptionally well in the finals, but both Samuel Levesque and James Whitehead had key victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals that got our team into the finals,” Schachter wrote. 

“This year's team is a special group; they started attending E-sports matches as ninth-graders even though the game they wanted to play (Super Smash Brothers) was not offered. Regardless, Samuel Levesque would still bring his Nintendo Switch to play Super Smash Brothers each week. Sam, James, and Wesley played Super Smash Brothers together for many hours and started increasing their skill level. Last year, the three of them made it to the semifinals in the state but lost to the team from Central Falls. I am so proud of the team for how much they have grown over the years and for winning it all this year!”

The popularity of E-sports has grown over the past few years, according to the BHS coach.

“Six years ago when Rhode Island began offering E-sports, we only had one game offered in the state,” Schachter wrote. “Now we have over a dozen games offered, with three of them feeding into a state championship (Super Smash Brothers, Rocket League, and Mario Kart).”