Despite his upbringing as a Lake Stevens Viking, Velazquez carved through the tournament playing Madden 22 coins in The Green Bay Packers. The MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers and star wide receiver Davante, along with the team's fast pace created a playing style ideal, Velazquez said.

It wasn't the Super Bowl, but tens of thousands of people saw Velazquez's live performance and a live recording of the game has received more than 340,000 views on streaming service Twitch. Officials from Washington's high school esports association believe Velazquez is the state's first esports national champion. While the pandemic kept kids from playing video games, Lake Stevens High School experienced revival.

"People were already communicating with each other digitally, and this was a very natural extension of that," claimed Trevor Wood, an 11th-grade English teacher and advisor to the school's video gaming club. "The school and the district were very interested in seeing the video game club flourishing, because it was one of the sole ways children could be socially connected."

A recent trend for the game "Among Us,"" an online multiplayer challenge has attracted Velazquez and other players to join the club. Prior to COVID-19 Wood explained that the video game club had fewer than 10 members. Now about 60 students have joined the discussion channel of the group.

This year, the club also took on the competitive side of gaming by challenging high schoolers across Washington as well as across the country with a wide range of esports. The team has played in events like "Mario Kart" and "League of Legends" but with little results, but the victory of Velazquez could help the club to continue its upward trajectory. Wood confirmed that the team's "Super Smash Bros." team is nearing the state finals tournament and buy mut coins is undefeated.