Over the years esports has gone on a quick surge of popularity. In fact, in the last 5 years more than 200 colleges have added a varsity esports program. Not only that but via the IHSEA program multiple high schools in Illinois have started engaging in esports. Including our very own Leyden, which has seen lots of success over the past couple years. Someone who has experienced some of those successes first hand is Nathan Lechman, a west junior known as Fuzzle, who has been captain of the mario kart team since his freshman year. During that freshman year Fuzzle led the varsity team to a third place standing at the 2024 sectionals tournament, one of the most stand out moments of the tournament was the teams match against Schaumburg. He reported that, “We were down by a lot against Schaumburg, and we came back and won, and everybody was so hyped, it was amazing.” Not only was this memory noteworthy but it seems the year as a whole was. After being a longstanding member of the team and having experienced multiple different rosters but when asked what his favorite year on the team was he answered, “I’d say probably freshman year, because that team we had was so close together we didn’t really have to try hard, we could just have fun and play. And I really liked that.” However, esports is not without its share of frustrations. As Fuzzle recalls one of the most frustrating movements he’s experienced while on the team. “We had a track where, if we at least had one person not finish seventh or eighth, we would have won the cup, and I will leave his name anonymous. He got eighth place and we lost by two points. That was very irritating.” Although Nathan is very grateful for the  opportunity to be the captain of such a strong team he has gone through moments of doubt. Going as far as discussing a point in time where he considered leaving esports behind him. “A lot of my friends were doing football, and I was on the football team during the time, but I ultimately chose to quit to do eSports, and then I kind of lost those connections for a couple months. So it made me want to reconsider at the time, but I think right now, with where I’m at, I think I made the right choice.” He notes that there is one past player from his freshman year he would like to thank, “Xavier, Ksavi he goes by, he was one of the people that really led the way as a senior with me being a freshman. I feel like he was the one that I branched off of the most.” With esports on the rise in colleges it seemed like a natural conclusion to ask if he has any plans to pursue esports at the college level, To which he responded, “As of right now, I think yes, because I’ve seen people can get a lot of scholarships for it. And I think if I have it known that I’ve been a four year varsity captain that would look really good on an application.” With the team keeping 3 out of the 4 starting players moving onto the next year things are looking bright for the future of the Mario kart team as well as for the captain himself.