LAKEWOOD – This year’s esports state championships not only featured a new title – Splatoon 3– but also a new champion.

At Localhost on Tuesday, Mountain Vista – Drew Plug, Grace Frye, Joe Buck and Owen Lamb – won 3-0 over Lakewood in the championship match to claim Colorado’s first ever Splatoon 3 title as well as the school’s first-ever esports championship.

“We’ve just been doing this a couple years and we’ve been lucky to have some really awesome, awesome kids,” Mountain Vista coach Michael Lee said. “Honestly, at Vista we’ve just tried to make it all about them and let them take control over it from designing our logo to our jerseys, everything, really. Even the code of conduct was largely influenced by our students and their thoughts on it.

“I don’t do too much. I just support them and try to say yes when I can. We’re lucky enough to have an amazing group of four kids who weren’t friends a couple years ago and now they’re best buddies.”

Mountain Vista also finished runner-up at Super Smash Bros in the spring.

Making its title match debut on Tuesday, Lakewood – Matthew Bresnahan, Simon Warner, Ari Logan and Kyle Herman – took home an esports runner-up trophy for the first time in school history.

In the semifinals, Mountain Vista won 3-0 over Ponderosa and Lakewood won 3-0 against Cherry Creek.

In the quarterfinals, Mountain Vista won 3-0 against Kennedy, Ponderosa won 3-1 against Chatfield, Lakewood won 3-0 over Highlands Ranch and Cherry Creek beat Discovery Canyon, 3-2.

In the first round, Mountain Vista won 3-0 against Pueblo County, Kennedy won 3-0 against Poudre, Chatfield won 3-0 against Valor Christian, Ponderosa won 3-1 over Rocky Mountain, Lakewood won 3-0 against Cherry Creek JV, Highlands Ranch won 3-0 against Arvada, Cherry Creek won 3-0 against Hoehne and Discovery Canyon won 3-1 against Vista Ridge.

The 2024 school year is the third with esports as an official CHSAA-sanctioned activity.