Esports Arena: Eat, Sleep, Compete!
Jacob Hernandez - Local News Reporter
Tuesday, July 19th, 2016
SANTA ANA, CAㅡCalling all gamers, it’s time to show off your skills. Esports Arena is a place where you can play games competitively, or just for fun. Esports, or electronic sports, is a form of competition using electronics. The innovative space can be found on 120 W 5th St., Santa Ana. This arena makes a large contribution to the changing video game industry. The sports and video game industries are both very lucrative with millions of fans. Combining the two is a match made in heaven. Esports Arena also transforms the experience of playing, usually a solitary experience, into an experience that is more impactful and social. Esports is also a growing industry. According to Luke Brue, accounting executive at Esports Arena, “Esports is one of those things that’s been slowly growing over the last several years. It’s just going to keep growing and growing.”
The arena was built from people who were gamers themselves. Luke Brue stated, “The business itself was founded through five friends who had the concept, they got together and built this whole place from scratch. They found a building and they started signing up for sponsorships. Pretty much everything that you see here, the tables, the chairs, the desks we built most of it from scratch.” The bottom floor can hold 120 PCs, and the top floor can hold 64 xboxes. On a more competitive level, Esports Arena hosts a variety of events day to day . To name a few: Mondy Night Fireside, Tabletop Tuesdays, Wednesday Night Fights, and their upcoming IBuyPower Invitational Summer event. |
Esports Arena is a great place to play games: from the noob to the long time pro. You’ll be surrounded by people who share the same passion, video games. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been playing video games; even all the way through highschool I was a gamer” Brue stated. The esports industry and community are going to keep expanding. According to SuperData, the eSports market size for 2015-2016 is $747.5 million. “Esports is a booming scene. Jump on the train while it’s taking off.”- Luke Brue, Accounting Executive at Esports Arena.
The best frozen treats in Santa Ana
We did the hard work for you and checked out the best scoop to try this summer!
Adriana Espinoza and Zurisadai Alvarez, Food Reporters
Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
It’s summertime, which means it’s ice cream and frozen yogurt season! To investigate the best ice cream and frozen yogurt, we looked into the best places to get these sweet treats in the Santa Ana area.
The number 1 ice cream and yogurt is the “Calderon Ice cream” is the # 1 rated in the California. The 2nd best ice cream and yogurt is “Scoops OC“ and it’s even called the # 2 best in the state of California! Then, the 3rd best ice cream shop is “Hans homemade ice cream” in Orange County, which is also the 3rd best ice cream rated in California The 4th best ice cream shop is “Exisito” ice cream and frozen yogurt rated in California, but we did not have the chance to visit this ice-cream shop. The 6th best in Orange County is called “Chunk-N-Chips,” while the 10th one is “Yogurtland.” We wanted to go on an adventure to test out and explore which places served the best frozen treats. We ate at Cauldron Ice Cream first and the ice cream tasted amazing. The S’MORES Ice cream was so delicious because it had organic cookies mixed in with ice cream that was made from marshmallows, as well as big chunks of chocolate that were so good, they melted in my mouth and created the exact flavor of S’mores as it mixed with the organic cookie and toasted marshmallow that was placed right on top. Then, we ate at Scoops OC, the second best ice cream shop and it tasted so good. We tried the Caramel Sriracha flavor since it was the most interesting-sounding flavor. It tasted extraordinarily different, because it had caramel with ice cream, but it also had a hint of spice that made the flavor more complex and different than any other flavors we’ve tried. Then we went to “Hans homemade ice cream,” the 3rd best ice cream shop in Orange County, and it tasted so scrumptious. We tried the Coffee Oreo flavor and it was sweet and bitter, just like the best mocha coffee drinks you can find at a cafe. The mixture of coffee and chocolate is something that works so perfectly well together. Later on, we went to Chunk-N-Chips and ordered the flavor that is called “butter your velvet.” It was made up of two red velvet cookies and chocolate ice cream in the middle, which made the experience of eating ice cream more like a full dessert. It was so amazingly and delicious! The texture of the chewy cookie and the ice cold chocolate ice cream melting in our mouths reminded us of red velvet cake. Throughout all of our taste tests, we definitely experienced a lot of brain freeze and a few stomach aches. However, it was worth it in the end. |
The results are in! The best ice cream that we tried in Orange County has got to be the S’Mores Ice Cream from Cauldron Ice Cream because it had there elements that made the taste out of this world. The gooey toasted marshmallow, the marshmallow flavored ice cream, the chunks of chocolate that melt in our mouth, and the organic graham cracker cookie that added the perfect crumbly sweetness made this scoop something that we would go back for. So this summer, go ahead and try out the various ice cream shops in Orange County, there’s a lot of brain freeze out there!
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Undercover Flan
Mission Impossible? Finding the best flan in Santa Ana
Giselle Mascorro and Ruth Alvarez, Food Reporters
Saturday, July 16th, 2016
Santa Ana- Bakeries are great because they are tasty with Mexican culture and flavors, so we decided to try a dessert that is in the Latin-American dessert world. We set out to discover the best flan in town, right here in Santa Ana! Before we can explore the silky and sweet experiences eating so much flan, we first needed to search out the history of this delicious dish. We were surprised to find out that unlike most people think, Flan actually does not originate from Mexico. Actually, Rome brought their cooking traditions to Europe, and introduced flan as a dessert. Romans invented flan, but it is different from the flan that we eat in today. Flan is a sponge cake with a juicy and sweet glaze on top.
Flan is made up of eggs, milk, condensed milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Most people would like to eat flan at parties and special occasions. Flan is a staple dessert in many Latin American countries, as it was first brought by the conquistadors from Spain in Europe. Mexicans like to eat flan, because they have a sweet tooth.
Now, the testing. Tlaxcala Bakery had a flan that looked like it was cooked well as it had the right kind of caramelized brown. It had a flavor that was outstanding, as it really gave off the sweetness of the glaze without overpowering the cake. It was unique because it had a hole in the middle which I never see. This means that the flan pan that was used was like the kind people use for angel food cake or bundt cakes. Victoria Bakery had an approach that looked like it was a little overcooked and it had a great glisten on the top surface. The flan tasted like it had the right amount of glaze because it was soft, but not mushy and you can not really taste the vanilla. It grabbed my attention because it had a rich sticky glaze that tasted like candy. Cholula Bakery was interesting because the flan was somewhat glazed, but what is special about this flan is that it had a good pancake texture. However, it was too sweet and it was dry. It looked like a flat pancake, instead of a fluffy silky flan sponge cake. Panaderia La Chapina had a flan that was sprinkled with fruits with a lot of glaze. As we took the first bite, we could tasted the fragrant smell of cinnamon mixed in with the fresh fruit flavors. It caught my attention as it had a different texture and presentation.
So here are the results! In fourth place for having a good flan, but a little too dry: Cholula Bakery. In third place because they had a great flan with too much glaze Panaderia La Chapina. In second place by cause of having an amazing flan, missing some flavor: Victoria Bakery. In first place as a result of having the best flan having the right amount of glaze and cooked just right: Tlaxcala Bakery. Go ahead and try it for yourself. Which flan reigns supreme?
Critical Thinking through Current Events
Summer Enrichment at Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School
Haley Duran
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
Santa Ana- Two middle school teachers decided to spend their summer enriching children’s lives. They are teaching these children how to become journalists.
Deborah Park and April Salas are the co-founders of the Critical Current Summer Enrichment Program. This program is currently taking place from June 21- July 22, 2016 at Mendez Fundamental in Santa Ana. They Started this program to give the middle schoolers they teach a chance to learn how to become a journalist.
Ms. Park and Ms. Salas have taught these children the origins of journalism and how journalists purvey information. Kevin Angel a mentor in this program said, “This program has taught me many interesting topics about journalism that I probably would have never known if hadn’t come here.” This program is influencing many of the students to look at journalism as a profession in the future. Stephany Gutierrez a student in this program said, “I learned a lot about journalism. I am considering becoming a journalist someday.”
They are teaching the kids the history of journalism and how to write an article. After every lesson the students are required to write a blog post. The blog post they write contains their answer to a question Ms. Salas or Ms. Park ask about what they have learned that day. These blog posts help the students with their writing skills and gets them ready to write their article towards the last two weeks of the summer program.
After three days of writing blog posts about certain topics the students are ready for a field trip. The topics that they learned throughout the week are represented in the field trip they go on. The students go on a field trip every week. The field trips they are going to go on are The OC Register, The Nixon Library, The Los Angeles Times, and the USC Annenberg School of Journalism.
The Dangerous Truth
Santa Ana and Gang Violence
Estrella Herrera
Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
In Santa Ana, there has been an increase in violent crimes related to gangs.. Many homicides, also known as murders, as well assaults are due to the active gangs in the Santa Ana community. The city has experienced nine homicides this past year. Seven of them were gang-related. At the start of the year, there were five people killed, an unknown number of people injured, and an officer who was wounded. There was over 50 shootings in January of 2016 in Santa Ana alone. Since the beginning of the year, there has been an average of one shooting a day. Due to the fear of getting hurt or even killed by gang members, witnesses do not come forward to provide information. Police officers are now spending more time in neighborhoods where gangs are particularly active. They are monitoring gang activity and offering financial rewards to people who provide information about gangs and their crimes.
Francisco Sotelo Gonzalez was cleaning out his car in the driveway in February when he received a phone call on his mobile device. Moments after the phone call, a car sped, shots were fired, and he died there in his driveway. He died in his father’s arms. Jose Gonzalez remembers how he leaped and caught his son before he touched earth, “I heard his last breath. In my arms, my son could no longer speak, not a single word,” Gonzalez stated in Spanish. Gang violence continues to be an issue that the Santa Ana community must be aware of and willing to address. Police suggest that anyone who has information on an active gang and its members come forward to bring these people to justice. Only then will our city be safe. |
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