By Emmanouel Sofillas, Asst. Sports Editor and Matty Schule, Staff Writer
Manhattan College’s Esports team took first place in the MAAC Valorant championships this month against several well-ranked colleges in Atlantic City, NJ. The popularity of competitive gaming has been on the rise over the past few years and the MC Esports team victory has certainly proved this to be true.
Comprised of Michael Lam, Joseph Airo, Marco Bucaj, James Teng, Minh Dong, and Raymond Galvez, the Manhattan College Esports team demonstrated exceptional skill to clinch the MAAC championship title. Despite many other Manhattan College sports teams in a slump, MC Esports seems to be one of the teams on campus finding immense success.
Reflecting on their journey to victory, Airo shared his insights on playing through the championship experience and ultimately winning the competition.
“I was honestly more nervous the first game because we were going on stage to play,” Airo said. “In the finals, it was just easy. I think we were all just accustomed to playing on stage by that point. So we feel we’ve done what we’ve been doing before, and now we have to do it again.”
When asked about initially starting the new Valorant team at Manhattan, the team shared what it was like recruiting new players.
“There’s two teams, but 30 people came,” Lam said. “We had to cut them off because we could not have this many people. We made them play against each other and had a picture of the better players.”
Now that the MC Esports team has won the MAAC, it has allowed them to qualify for the Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup (CEEC), which is the national tournament for college Esports teams. This tournament is expected to take place in early may.
“In the CEEC, there are a lot higher seeded teams, probably better teams in general,” Galvez said. “I think we could pull something together which would be really nice.”
As Manhattan College created its first-ever Valorant esports team last semester, the team encountered initial obstacles that they had to overcome to win the title.
“We had some issues during our regular season with people not talking or a lack of being on the same page,” Teng said. “But when we got there, something clicked within all of us. I don’t know what happened but after that we were on point.”
When asked about the most memorable moment of the tournament, the team had plenty but chose to share their experience in the finals.
“The first match against Quinnipiac, I’ll tell you right now I was a little nervous going into it because we thought these guys are a lot better competition than the other guys who had played before them,” Airo said. “But then we picked up a 13-1 score on the first game and I was feeling good again. We were just confident after that.”
As they embark on their next tournament in Texas, the members of the Manhattan College Esports team are ready to make their mark on the national stage. With the support of their college, the Jasper Valorant team were able to make phenomenal progress for a team that is still in its debut season.