Marble Falls Fortnite team wins national title
CAPTION: The Marble Falls High School Fortnite team includes coach Linden Colwell (left), Jimmy Harlow, Jeremy Williams, Jesse Jimenez and Alex Turley. Courtesy photo
In a short text, Marble Falls High School Principal Patrick Hinson was told the school’s Fortnite team captured the national championship of the Vanta Esports League.
The text came April 7.
The Fortnite team is part of the school’s esports squad. And Marble Falls beat Desoto for the title.
In order to win a national championship, teams compete in video-game specific tournaments.
The tournaments, which are through the Vanta Esports League, are played much like Major League Baseball and the NBA. Squads must win a series to advance and continue playing. Marble Falls beat Desoto 4-1 to be the national champions.
The team includes captain Jeremy Williams, Reed Lewis, Alex Turley, Jesse Jimenez, Jimmy Harlow, Jonathon Hernandez, Brayden Potter and Oliver Lyon.
The Marble Falls team is coached by Linden Colwell, the ACE program coordinator, who served as the assistant coach last year under Adam Ray.
Colwell plays video games himself and told Ray he would “help with this any way I can.”
Williams, Turley and Jimenez were the first to join followed by Reed. The four won the 2024 Texas Esports League Championship in May against Fort Worth Young Men’s Leadership Academy.
Just like other sports, Colwell maintains that his players are learning key skills that will help them long after they graduate from high school.
“There’s a lot of strategy that goes into the game,” he said. “We have to have an adaptive strategy when we play.”
He said his players truly operate as a team with each one shouting what their opponents are doing so that those who have the controllers aren’t surprised and can have a ready answer.
The players must quickly process what they’re seeing and make snap decisions that decide the winner.
“We have to be really on our toes and really it’s a lot of brain power that goes into it,” the coach said. “It’s just definitely a lot of thinking. Mentally you have to have a lot of processing power going on. I would say if we did not have the communication that we do as a team — and then from coach to player and player to player, and even when we’re in the middle of a game with other teams — if we didn’t have skills that we have, we would not have gotten this far. It’s like basketball when you’re on the court, you’re calling out ‘he’s setting up the screen, he’s gonna dunk.’ And (on my team) you have to be doing callouts every single second – ‘he’s going high, he’s going low, he has this much help, I got this much help on him, I have this gun, he has that gun, he has this height, he’s here, he’s here.’ If we didn’t have the communication — we call it comms — we would have not made it this far.”
Like other sports, there are limited spots. Fortnite has a ranking system that’s part of the evaluation and Colwell will sometimes hold tryouts. He said the team meets daily and some may decide to sit out a round because they’ve played a lot.
Lewis has been ranked in the top 150 in the world and Jimenez is considered the team’s top player. But Williams is the captain because of one trait.
“Charisma,” Colwell said. “He’s our big person. He’s always talking. He’s never shy to do an interview. He’s never shy to be on camera, he’s never shy to talk about esports and what he’s doing and how the team’s going. And on games, he’s always the one practicing.”
Fortnite is one of several games the MFHS esports squad plays. They also play Rocket League, Rainbow Six: Siege, FC ’25, Brawlhalla, Marvel Rivals and APEX Legends.
Vanta has a fall national title and a spring national title. The tournaments are played remotely. Those who reach the Final Four of the state tournament must travel to take on the opponent at the same venue. Last year it was in Arlington.
Colwell said it’s possible that one class could win eight national titles before they graduate.
“We’re still competing in state, too,” he said. “We’re in round one of state. The national was just smaller than state this year. There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not a deal with ‘Oh, you won state, now you qualify for nationals.’ The schools we play at state are at a different level.”
After winning the state championship last year, the team received a grant that Ray used to buy gaming computers. Colwell said the esports team wouldn’t exist without the support of the Marble Falls Independent School District administration, Hinson and the campus assistant principals.
“Really, really good stuff,” Colwell said. “Without ACE, nothing would be possible. I’m grateful to have eight (players). They are actually good.”
CAPTION: Alex Turley (left), Riley Smith, Jesse Jimenez amd Jeremy Williams. Courtesy photo
