Tomball grad talks eSports as analyst for internationally-acclaimed team, DarkZero

Cristian "eCentral" Guerra is the Analyst for Houston-based eSports team DarkZero, advising the team and giving them feedback during competitions. Guerra graduated from Tomball High School and currently attends Texas A& University. less Cristian "eCentral" Guerra is the Analyst for Houston-based eSports team DarkZero, advising the team and giving them feedback during competitions. Guerra graduated from Tomball High School and currently attends ... more Photo: Chevall Pryce Photo: Chevall Pryce Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Tomball grad talks eSports as analyst for internationally-acclaimed team, DarkZero 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

eSports, or competitive gaming, is growing in popularity year after year with more teams joining the fray for various games, from fighting games to tactical shooters, and more viewers tuning in to watch online. According to TwitchTracker, in 2019 more than 623 billion minutes of gaming were watched on Twitch, a popular platform to stream gameplay and tournaments.

As a lifelong gamer and competitive spirit in traditional sports, Tomball High School graduate Cristian Guerra said he is happy to represent Houston as a member of DarkZero, a Houston-based eSports team competing in the tactical first-person shooter Rainbow Six Siege on an international level as one of the top teams in their league. In November, they won second place in the Pro League Finals in Japan.

Guerra, known as eCentral within eSports, splits time between classes at Texas A&M University, where expects to graduate summer 2020, and the DarkZero house in Grand Oaks where the rest of the team lives and works. The team is encouraged to have a healthy diet and exercise in their in-house workout area, Guerra said.

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Gaming and pop culture memorabilia, such as Captain America’s shield, a dozen different Pokemon plush toys and other figurines, are perched all over the DarkZero house.

The house has a “bullpen,” where players sit side by side on computers to practice and compete, with a central screen where the coaches can get a glimpse of each player and their perspective. Guerra said his role as an analyst is to report back to the team on enemy formations while using data to improve aspects of the team performance.

“I was playing on console and then I switched over (to) the PC kind of realizing that’s where all of the talent kind of ascends to,” he said. “I realized my talents still kind of fell behind coming from controller to keyboard and mouse and so I kind of pivoted to coaching.”

As the analyst, Guerra has traveled around the world with the team for competitions including Italy, Canada and Japan. The team members are from around the country, including New York and Pennsylvania. One of the newest members, Tyler “Ecl9pse” McMullin, is from Klein.

Before joining DarkZero in April, Guerra coached for the battle royale third-person shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and hero-based shooter Overwatch. He said he applied to join DarkZero as soon as he could, despite having tryout opportunities for other teams, which he declined.

“As soon as I saw the head coach put out an application, I basically spent the entire spring break perfecting my application,” he said. “I knew I was going to be joining a Houston team. It’s of the utmost importance to me. I’ve been a fan of all of the Houston sports, I’m definitely proud to be representing Houston.”

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Guerra said he likes eSports due to its accessibility and the flexible opportunities to be a professional player. He said the opportunity to stream gameplay and interact with audiences creates a bridge between the two communities.

“Imagine if I was able to see how Deshaun Watson practices or just to be able to ask questions,” he said. “They actually livestream so people can actually come into their chat and just ask a question. ‘How do I get better as a player? How do I get better in this specific game as a competitor?’”

Guerra said juggling school and DarkZero is emotionally taxing but manageable, and that he keeps college at the top of his list of priorities as a math major. He said DarkZero is scrimmaging with other teams and working on their defensive strategy leading up to their next competition in Las Vegas from Dec. 13 to 15.

“Right now we just acquired two new players which is pretty cool,” he said. “Basically, some of the things we’ve been doing is just trying to figure out where our foundation lies, kind of bring some of that culture we had prior, the DarkZero mentality.”

For more information on DarkZero, visit DarkZero.gg.

chevall.pryce@chron.com