Local Spotlight • Esports
In a small room at Boise High School, the sound of clashing controllers and shouted callouts fills the air. It’s an ordinary scene for any esports team — except for one player who isn’t watching the screen at all.
Senior Garrett Brown is one of the top competitors on Boise High’s esports team, battling his way through Super Smash Bros. matches against sighted opponents. Garrett was born blind. He can’t make out shapes, shadows, or movement on the screen — only brightness and darkness. And yet, more often than not, he wins.
Watch the original KTVB news segment on Garrett Brown.
“There’s so many different sounds, and they put so much detail into those sounds.”
— Garrett Brown
Listening to the Game
For most gamers, Super Smash Bros. is a visual blur of fast-twitch reflexes — tracking characters, dodging attacks, reading the stage in real time. Garrett plays an entirely different version of the same game, one built on sound.
“I can’t see shapes, shadows, anything like that,” Garrett explained. “It’s just brightness and darkness.”
What he lacks in sight, he makes up for in listening. Every move in the game produces a distinct sound, and over the years Garrett has trained himself to hear the difference. Footsteps, attacks, even the way a character travels across the stage — it all tells a story if you know how to listen for it.
“Like some characters have flip-flops, so you can hear a lighter [sound],” he said. Other characters give themselves away just by existing. “Some giant characters, like Bowser, [their] feet shake the ground as they run.” Lighter, faster characters move differently still. “Some characters kind of glide across the stage,” he said. “There’s so many different sounds, and they put so much detail into those sounds.”
From the Boys and Girls Club to the Big Leagues
Garrett’s gaming journey began long before he ever set foot in Boise High’s esports room. In sixth grade, he discovered an old Nintendo 64 at the Boys and Girls Club and found himself drawn in — not by the graphics, but by the audio.
“I liked the sounds,” he said, “so I was like, I want to kind of keep playing this.”
That early curiosity turned into something much bigger. Over time, Garrett trained his ear to recognize voices, footsteps, and movement patterns until the game’s audio became a full sensory map he could navigate as well as any sighted player navigates a screen.
Running the Gauntlet
When Garrett first showed up to play with the Boise High esports team, nobody expected what came next.
“There was five or six other players down here playing, and he came down,” said coach Paul Parado. “They eventually didn’t think he was visually impaired, because he ran the gauntlet right through all of my players.”
One by one, Garrett beat them — sighted players who had every visual advantage and still couldn’t get past him. For Garrett, the moment was less about proving a point and more about doing what he loves. “It makes me laugh, honestly,” he said, “because I’m just like — you just got beaten by a blind person.”
“He ran the gauntlet right through all of my players.”
— Coach Paul Parado
More Than a Player
Garrett has become more than just a strong competitor on the Boise High team — he’s become one of its emotional anchors. According to Coach Parado, Garrett is usually the first person in the room to lift everyone else up.
“Garrett is the first one to say, ‘It’s okay, guys, we’ll get the next one,'” Parado said. “Or just always positive. Even when we lose, he walks out here with a smile because he got to come in and play for 45 minutes — something that he loves to do. So it just gives me chills every time he’s down here.”
For Garrett, the scoreboard has never been the point. “I honestly had never thought that I would end up on an actual high school team, so this is really great,” he said. “And of course, there are some times when I lose, but I don’t get too frustrated at that, because it’s just fun.”
The Sound of Victory
Still, winning has its own special soundtrack — and Garrett knows it well. In Super Smash Bros., every character has its own victory theme that plays when they win a match. For Garrett, hearing that tune is its own kind of confirmation.
“I heard the victory theme for my character,” he said, “and I was like, ‘Dude, let’s go.'”
It’s a small moment, but it captures something larger: proof that you don’t have to see the game to belong in it. As Garrett puts it, simply, “I’m goated.” His coach doesn’t disagree. “He is goated,” Parado said.
Looking Ahead
Garrett is set to graduate this year, and he hasn’t ruled out continuing his esports career at the next level. He says playing for Boise State would be “an incredible opportunity” if it comes his way. Coach Parado is already working behind the scenes, hoping to connect Garrett with the BSU esports program before he leaves Boise High for good.
Whatever comes next, Garrett has already proven something that goes well beyond any single match: that mastery isn’t always about what you can see — sometimes, it’s about how closely you listen.
Story reported by Hunter Funk for KTVB. Used with permission from KTVB.
