The Esports team at Wilkes University, located in the Sidhu School For Business, has only been around for just over a year now. The program was brought to Wilkes by a professor in law and finance, Robert Eskra, who has worked very hard with students to develop this program.
Currently, the program plays “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” “Overwatch 2,” “Valorant,” “League of Legends,” “Rocket League” and “Rainbow Six Siege.” In the team’s second season, their performance already looks very promising for the future of Esports success as a Colonel. For the first time in the university’s history, the Esports organization is running a full house at full power.
The “Smash” Crews team has historically been the team with the most runaway victories, all thanks to their star player and Wilkes alum, Mooch (Drew Fiedler). Upon his graduation, the “Smash” team was concerned that they would have big shoes to fill.
However, after much training and strategizing, the team has adjusted very well with old faces drastically evolving in performance such as Cheese Toast, Toggers and yours truly, Master Freeze. A couple new faces have greatly enhanced the team’s performance as well: Crisis, Cloud, Rust Spy and JusterJJ.
Although the “Smash” team suffered a 0-2 loss in the first week, they dusted themselves off and pulled through with yet another runaway victory (in best-of-three format) against Eastern University as the two MVPs, Cloud and Master Freeze, helped to carry the team to their win. Cloud mains Kirby and managed a 3-stock game in the first match and a 4-stock run during the second match.
As for myself, I managed to clear out a difficult Terry player using Mr. Game & Watch during the first match and then sealed victory in the second match as Solid Snake with a whopping 8-stock run against Hero, Incineroar and Byleth. Another new player, Crisis, pulled a clutch 4-stock in the first match before Wilkes began its runaway lead.
Another team making significant improvement is the “Overwatch 2” Colonels. The team was originally a band of strangers but have quickly become a highly synergized squad made of captain Path (dps) and his mates: Brox (tank), Rhys (support) and Samosa (support). The team has already claimed a 3-0 and is looking to proceed undefeated this season, which is looking to be quite a realistic goal. One of their primary substitutes, Houdini, is lead casting member for “Rocket League” and “Overwatch.”
The last of the veteran teams, but certainly not the least, is the “Rocket League” team. The captain, CareOhh, has been working hard to hold together the 3-man team as they continue to show their ability to rotate posts during matches. The roster consists of Orrery, Gugs and their substitute, Uperfan.
All of them have been nothing short of spectacular in their performance. In a best-of-five format, the team has pulled a 3-1 victory during the first week against University of Montreal and played double headers during the second week, with a crushing 0-3 against an impressive Post Eagles and an invigorating 3-0 against Jersey City. The team has developed a formula in-game that has scored them many goals, and hopefully many more are on the way.
The “Valorant” team has been fighting a battle of their own, in quite the unexpected way. Although Wilkes has more than enough players willing to compete for “Valorant,” they were unable to do so last year due to issues with approving the game itself on campus. The process was long and grueling, but the team players and Coach Eskra persisted until the approval was completed.
In this season, the captain Lindy has done an excellent job of leading their team through matches. An unexpected star player, Skillxt, has taken a couple of aces during their games. As of now, we can only expect good things from the team. Lindy also helps with streaming the matches for the other teams, so their role as part of Wilkes ESports goes beyond competing for “Valorant.”
Finally, the “League of Legends” team is being manned by Whom, also a Smash player. The team is still lighting their fires, but in no time at all they will be performing just as well as the rest of the teams.