Almost every Wednesday after school, one can find the close-knit “Super Smash Bros” Esports team practicing in room 1517. Senior Matthew Kilpatrick, a filmmaker, YouTuber and avid Nintendo fan, coaches the team.
As both a coach and team player, Matthew values his teammates’ skills and abilities to achieve a shared goal. He believes that more is possible when people come together and help each other be the best versions of themselves.
“Being able to see the players that I coach improving their skills is just really a great feeling for me,” Matthew said. “Seeing other people’s skills improve is why I’m still a coach for Esports today; it makes me feel so accomplished.”
Ever since his early childhood, Matthew has been playing Nintendo video games. In-turn, they have impacted many of his aspirations, hobbies, and interests both past and present.
“‘Pokémon’ is very special to me,” Matthew said. “‘Pokémon’ has helped me make more friends and find people with similar interests from when I started playing it 10 years ago.”
Matthew’s affinity for “Pokémon” and Nintendo in general has captured many areas of his life. He owns a multitude of amiibos (Collectable figurines with digital applications), video game cartridges and assorted memorabilia that rests around his gaming setup. It was a logical step for Matthew to go from intensive video game fan to Esports professional.
Before joining Esports, Matthew was a keen runner for the cross country and track teams. But unfortunately, track and Esports had overlapping after-school practice sessions, forcing him to make an ultimatum.
”I used to do cross country back in my freshman and sophomore year, but just didn’t really find it fun,” Matthew said. “I found it as a chore a lot of the time. I had more of a passion for Esports.”
Matthew has another passion: scriptwriting. He owns numerous notebooks filled with scripts for short films, and he credits his love of storytelling to Nintendo.
“‘Smash Bros’, ‘Kirby’, ‘Pokémon’, ‘Fire Emblem’, all these different types of games have rich and interesting characters,” Matthew said. “From the very colorful Dreamland of ‘Kirby’, to the more dystopian kind of look of ‘Xenoblade’, there is a wide variety of worlds that you can go to in the realm of video games that helps with building your own world and being able to find a setting that is perfect for your story.”
The expanse of worlds and stories Matthew has witnessed as a result of his love for Nintendo has greatly impacted his own process of formulating environments and the characters within. Matthew aspires to influence other writers with his vivid literary atmospheres and descriptive character personalities.
Utilizing his creative writing skills, Matthew enjoys producing short films with his friends. Matthew also handles the scriptwriting, editing, directing and management of all his short films.
“I would bring a lot of people on, like my best friends, to do videos with because that would also be giving us an excuse to spend time together; we are all very busy now that we are seniors,” Matthew said. “Being able to spend those two hours to film a video is usually some of the most fun I’ve had in such a long time.”
The short films that Matthew and his friends create are uploaded to his YouTube channel. His YouTube channel is home to Nintendo video game playthroughs, edits, shorts and livestreams.
“I started my YouTube channel in late 2020,” Matthew said. “As much as I would want to be a professional Nintendo YouTuber, I treat it more as a hobby than an actual planned career path for me.”
After starting his YouTube channel during his freshman year, Matthew joined the Audio & Video Tech & Film pathway at Lambert to learn how to edit, so he could increase the production quality of his videos.
“Very early on, I realized my videos without editing are garbage,” Matthew said. “After joining the AV pathway here at Lambert, I have learned how to do almost every aspect of the filmmaking process.”
Audio & Video Tech & Film opened more doors for Matthew to channel his scriptwriting talent and filmmaking spirit. Matthew deeply treasures the final products of his effort and hard work.
Matthew’s consistent focus on creating a favorable output is one of his defining characteristics. Despite his dedicated work ethic, he knows he cannot achieve his lofty goals alone. Everyone he collaborates with plays a key part to realizing the vision of the project at hand.
“Just seeing a full project come together with everyone doing their part is just so amazing to me,” Matthew said. “That is a lot of what makes me feel so fulfilled with YouTube and filmmaking, being able to see people’s reactions feels amazing.”
Positive reactions are what fuels Matthew to continue seeking his artistic dreams, in conjunction with his own desire to become a valid and recognized filmmaker. Matthew hopes to be credited in major motion picture releases as he pursues filmmaking in the future. He plans to major in Film Production at the University of West Georgia and wishes to inspire more people to take his path.
