The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Esports program took home a big win this month, sweeping their national Rocket League championship without dropping a single game.
But wait, what’s Rocket League?
It’s a cooperative video game where you play as a soccer team. But the twist is that you play as cars and have to headbutt the soccer ball toward your opponent’s goal.
The UH Esports program is one of the top in the nation, led by Sky Kauweloa. It offers scholarships and resources to its players, and supports a variety of competitive video games like Rocket League, Overwatch, and Call of Duty.
Team captain Logan Gregory and Kevin Nguyen, a UH Esports program assistant, joined The Conversation in the studio to speak about the team’s most recent success.
“We spent a lot of nights doing team reviews and all that, and going over gameplay, and that eventually helped us figure out what our roles were,” Gregory said.
With a national championship under their belt in the team's first year of competition, Nguyen said the university wants to continue supporting up-and-coming players.
“We just want to make sure that we can provide resources for them, so that they can focus on their studies, playing competitively without any distractions, and hopefully we can continue to build upon that,” he said.
Rocket League finished its spring season undefeated at 10-0 and swept the finals 4-0.
Gregory told HPR that their record is due to the number of practice hours each team member puts in and also their mindset.
“In Rocket League, mindset is everything in the game, and if you're not in a good mindset, then you can't play good,” he said. “Over some games, there were moments where we, as a team, were frustrated by the other team. … But it was definitely important to mentally reset as a team, and tell each other, ‘hey, we got this, we made a few mistakes, let's just get past this, and we know what to work on.’”
This story aired on The Conversation on May 15, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
